Production on the Statoil-operated Sleipner East and West fields in the North Sea was stopped in the afternoon of Wednesday 12 October, after a gas leak arose on the Sleipner A platform.
Production on Sleipner West is due to resume later today, Thursday, but it will take some more time before Sleipner East can start producing again.
Two gas detectors in a compressor module on Sleipner A were activated and personnel were routinely mustered to the lifeboats until the situation was clarified. There were 217 people on board Sleipner A when the incident occurred.
"Production from Sleipner East will remain shut down until the leak sites are repaired," says Bente Aleksandersen, vice president for Sleipner operations.
"Repairs are under way but at the moment we cannot specify when we can start planning start-up again."
The incident will be investigated by Statoil to find the cause of the gas leak, as is normal procedure.
Statoil's gas customers will receive supplies from other sources until the Sleipner fields are back in normal production.
The gas from Sleipner flows through the Statpipe, Zeepipe and Europipe II trunklines to Emden in Germany and Zeebrugge in Belgium. Condensate from Sleipner flows to the Kårstø receiving terminal north of Stavanger.
Daily output from Sleipner East is roughly 21 million cubic metres of gas and 40,000 barrels of condensate.
Sleipner West produces about 24 million cubic metres of gas and 55,000 barrels of condensate daily.