Chevron stops work at leaking oil well off Brazil coast
Baku, March 16 (AZERTAC). The US oil company Chevron suspended drilling Saturday at the Frade oil field in the Atlantic Ocean off the Brazilian coast where a well was leaking crude to an amount almost 10 times greater than originally reported, the company said.
The company responsible for the deepwater drilling of this field said the volume of the oil spill was equivalent to between 404 and 650 barrels, according to the state news service Agencia Brasil.
The company said it will send a fleet of support ships to the scene to help control the oil slick and reduce the environmental impact.
On Friday, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff ordered a “rigorous investigation” of the leakage, which initial reports said was a mere 60 barrels in volume.
The president “redoubled attention and ordered a rigorous investigation into the causes of the accident, as well as the assignment of responsibilities whatever the size of the oil spill,” according to a communique from the office of the president.
The spill occurred last Wednesday in the area where the country`s biggest oil deposits are located.
The Mines and Energy Ministry, the National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, and the navy “accompany and support” all the measures Chevron is taking to stop the leaks, according to the communique from the president`s office.
Chevron has a 51.7 percent stake in the Frade oil field, the state oil company Petrobras has 30 percent, and the rest belongs to the Japanese consortium Frade Japan Petroleum.
The deepwater field is located some 200 kilometers (124 miles) off the coast of Rio de Janeiro and some 1,100 meters (3,600 feet) beneath the seabed.
The Frade offshore field has proven reserves of between 200-300 million barrels of crude equivalent, according to Chevron, which began drilling for oil there in 2009.
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