New shutdown

by Trude Meland, Norwegian Petroleum Museum

Only a month passed before Draugen had to shut down again when oil was detected inside the concrete shaft on 15 December because of a leak in one of the risers carrying up the wellstream.

— "another oil leak shuts down Draugen" from Stavanger Aftenblad 05.01.1994

This proved to be caused by a welding defect. Fortunately, no oil escaped to the sea because the leak was contained inside the GBS.[REMOVE]Fotnote: Dagens Næringsliv, 6 January 1994, “Ukjent sprekkgrunn på Draugen”.
It was discovered at about the same time as a shutdown had already been planned, so that production would have ceased in any event. The consequences were therefore less extensive.

The scheduled shutdown simply happened a few days early, and lasted a week longer than intended. Production resumed on 31 December.

In addition to these leaks in the first year on stream, Draugen was shut down several times for safety reasons – although only for a few hours at a time.[REMOVE]Fotnote: Stavanger Aftenblad, 5 January 1994, “Ny oljelekkasje stanset Draugen”. A new platform will often have some teething problems, and production disruptions were not unusual. But they meant a loss of revenues for the licensees and the Norwegian government.