Heavy storm conditions in the North Sea caused four of this floating production, storage, and offloading’s (FPSO) 10 anchor chains to break resulting in the vessel moving off its position. It is estimated that the FPSO was subject to 53-knot winds and nine meter waves. Normally, a complex piping system runs from the wells on the seabed up to the FPSO, however, this infrastructure was damaged in the incident. Following the vessel moving off its position, all of the wells were immediately shut in. Subsequent surveys showed that no oil had been lost. The 74 non-essential crew were evacuated to near-by platforms and 43 essential crew members remained onboard. Two members of crew received minor injuries. The facility was projected to be producing an average of 18,400 bbl-per-day of oil prior to the loss.

[ Property Damage $450 Million. Estimated Current Value $497 Million ]

Image credit: Maersk