A Canadian platform pours 3,200 gallons of oil mixture into the Atlantic

An offshore oil rig off the Canadian island of Newfoundland dumped nearly 3,200 gallons of a mixture of oil and water into the Atlantic Ocean, and efforts are underway to minimize the environmental impact, ExxonMobil said Thursday.

The spill occurred a day earlier during the "routine activities related to the disposal of water" from a storage cell, said the US oil giant.

"The volume of oil released by the Hibernia platform has been estimated at 75 barrels of oil, or about 12,000 liters," said the Hibernia air surveillance company in a statement issued by ExxonMobil.

This North Atlantic region is full of marine life, including whale species, but HMDC said "no wildlife was seen in the region" by specialists who were sent.

"We are disappointed that the landfill has occurred, but we are working diligently to minimize the environmental impacts," said Scott Sandlin, president of HMDC, quoted in the statement.

On Wednesday, the company announced it had temporarily closed the oil rig after discovering the oil spill in the ocean.

He used various cleaning measures, including a dam-type system deployed on the side of a ship, badisted by a skimmer.

HMDC said it was monitoring the surface of the ocean with a radius of about three nautical miles (5.6 km), about 204 km east of St John & # 39; s 39; s (Newfoundland).

"The ships are responsible for monitoring and cleaning the chandelier and are asking all sailors to keep a 10-nautical-mile mooring in this area," the statement said.

Hibernia, which opened in 1997 and is located approximately 196 miles east of St John's, is jointly owned by Chevron, Suncor and Equinor (formerly Statoil), in addition ExxonMobil, which holds the majority of the shares.

The oil field below Hibernia, accessible by submarine drilling, contains more than 1.2 billion barrels of oil.

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© 2019 AFP