CALGARY, Alberta - Canada's second-largest offshore oil project, Terra Nova, has been shut down after a mechanical problem caused oil to spill into the Atlantic Ocean, operator Petro-Canada said Monday.
A problem with the operation's oil-water separator on Sunday meant about 1,000 barrels of crude spilled into the waters about 350 km (217 miles) southeast of the Newfoundland coast, Petro-Canada spokeswoman Jackie Dragojevic said.
"Normally the oil is separated completely from the water and then the oil is stored and the water goes back into the ocean," she said. "In this instance, effectively what happened is the oil and the water weren't completely separated."
Terra Nova was pumping at a rate of 165,000 barrels a day at the time of the malfunction, Dragojevic said.
An earlier estimate pegged the leaked volume at 200 barrels.
By comparison, the tanker Exxon Valdez leaked 260,000 barrels of crude when it ran aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989 in North America's largest oil spill.
Terra Nova's production was suspended pending a review and Dragojevic said she did not expect to find out until later Monday or early Thursday when it would restart.
The Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board, the regulator in charge of oil development in the region, said it had launched an investigation into the incident.
Petro-Canada's partners in the development are Exxon Mobil Corp. , Husky Energy Inc., Norsk Hydro , Murphy Oil Corp., Mosbacher Operating Co. and ChevronTexaco Corp.
Hibernia, located nearby, is Canada's largest offshore oil project.
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