Print version Email to a friend

Petrobras reports oil leak, rupture at Brazil field

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:33 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Company estimates 160 barrels leaked

* Well closure system functioned, well secure

* No chance oil will reach coast-Petrobras (Adds details from Petrobras spokesman, oil regulator)

SAO PAULO, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Brazil's state-controlled oil company Petrobras said on Tuesday a ruptured pipe on one of its production vessels spilled 160 barrels of oil in deep water off the Brazilian coast, the company's second spill in less than a month.

The new spill by the company known for its deepwater expertise comes as a federal prosecutor plans to fine U.S. oil giant Chevron Corp and its drilling company Transocean $11 billion after they spilled around 3,000 barrels off the coast of Rio de Janeiro in November.

Petrobras' floating production, storage and offloading vessel, known as the Dynamic Producer, is located 300 km (186 miles) off the coast of Sao Paulo state in water depths of 2,140 meters (7,021 feet). The vessel is in long-duration production tests over the northeast Carioca subsalt oil and gas field.

"After the rupture, the security system automatically closed the well. The well is closed securely," Petrobras said in a statement. "There is no chance of the oil reaching the coast."

The company said it activated its emergency plan and mobilized all necessary resources to contain the oil spill at sea. It is still investigating the cause of the rupture.

"There are two skimmer vessels operating in the area that are equipped with oil collectors and two support ships to manage booms to contain the spread of the slick," Erico Monte, spokesman for Petrobras, said.

The National Petroleum Agency said it would dispatch a team of investigators to the area. It also said there was little chance of oil reaching the coast and that the well was closed, definitively containing the leak.

Brazil's environmental agency Ibama said it was sending representatives to Petrobras' operational headquarters in Macae in Rio de Janeiro state and to Santos in Sao Paulo state. It will also send a team on a fly-over of the area of the spill to witness the containment operations.

Monte said the rupture occurred in one of the risers, or flexible pipes, that links the vessel with the wellhead thousands of meters below on the ocean floor and that since the well was closed, there was risk of more oil leaking out.

The spill comes only days after the Petrobras' distribution arm Transpetro spilled 317 gallons of oil that fouled a beach in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Authorities say the company could face fines of up to 50 million reais.

Executives from Chevron and Tranocean could be facing prison sentences, in addition to the massive fines aimed at the companies, if the courts accept the prosecutor's case for the November oil spill. No oil from the Chevron spill reached Brazilian beaches.

Although Petrobras' recent spills are much smaller than Chevron's, prosecutors' and regulators' response to them will likely indicate to foreign oil companies whether they could expect rougher treatment for spills in Brazil than Petrobras. ($1=1.7474 reais) (Reporting by Reese Ewing, Jeb Blount, Leila Coimbra and Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and David Gregorio)