Wall Street Journal: Shell's Brent Delta North Sea Oil, Gas Platform Restarted Sat

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

May 10, 2004 8:50 a.m.

Posted 11 May 04

LONDON -- Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD) Monday said its Brent Delta oil and natural gas platform in North Sea restarted Saturday evening after being brought offline a week earlier because of a small hydrocarbon leak.

The platform, which produces an average of 5,000 barrels of oil and 100 million cubic feet of gas a day, is back to the same rate of production as before the incident, a spokesman in London said.

The leak on April 30 prompted Shell to evacuate 64 non-essential personnel from the platform, though they had all returned by the following day.

The evacuation was the latest in a string of problems at the Brent field, starting last September, when two workers were killed in a gas leak on the Bravo platform.

All four of the Brent platforms were taken offline following the accident, though Delta was only taken briefly.

The Charlie platform only restarted production in February after extensive refurbishment.

Company Web site: http://www.shell.com

By Mark Long; Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9356; mark.long@dowjones.com