Norway's Statoil said on Sunday it had stopped production at its Statfjord A platform in the North Sea due to a fire, and started to evacuate the personnel.

 

There were 67 people on board when the fire broke at 0820 CET (0620 GMT), and Statoil had evacuated 20 people by 1000 CET.

 

Statoil's spokesman said the situation was "under control" at around 1100 CET, with no smoke or flames visible, but it was unclear when the production could restart.

 

"We are now working to confirm that the fire is abated," spokesman Ola Anders Skauby told Reuters.

 

"Production will continue to be shut down and we don't know how long it will take to restart production," he added.

 

Statfjord is an oilfield on the border between the Norwegian and UK sectors of the North Sea which produced about 24,700 barrels of oil per day in July, the latest available data from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate showed.

 

It also produces natural gas, which is exported via the FLAGS pipeline to Britain