Careless Statoil Work

Norway?s oil company Statoil blamed working negligence for a potentially catastrophic natural gas leak in its Snorre A offshore oil platform on Nov. 28. Statoil blamed poor planning and a failure to follow procedures for the leak.

Though no one was injured, the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authorities described the incident in the North Sea as one of the most serious to ever hit the country's oil industry.

The leak at the Snorre A platform forced the evacuation of 180 crew, and shut down that field and the adjacent Vigdis fields, with a combined daily capacity of 205,000 barrels of oil. Partial production resumed Friday from parts of the fields not affected by the leak.