A large oil leak made BP shut down a pipeline in the North Sea

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BP announced a shutdown of its platform in the North Sea due to a large amount of oil that had leaked into the waters on Sunday morning UK time. The company explains it was a result of a “technical issue”.

“The Clair platform, which is located 75km (46 miles) west of Shetland, has been shut down and the release has been stopped. All personnel have been accounted for and there are no injuries. We are investigating the cause of the technical issue and monitoring the situation. All relevant authorities have been informed,” the BBC quoted a BP spokesman as saying.

Lang Banks, director of environmental charity at WWF Scotland, suggested that the best decision in the interest of the marine environment would be “to allow the oil to disperse naturally at sea”. Scotland’s Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham agreed that by doing this the negative impact on the marine life would be minimal, BBC quotes.

Later the same day BP published the results of its research saying that approximately 95 tons of oil spilled from its Clair platform.