§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he has ordered surveys of United Kingdom offshore 80W installations in view of the recent discoveries of internal corrosion in the elbow of one of the flowlines taking oil from the Bravo pipeline to the Ekofisk central platform and the shifting of a riser on the Ekofisk Delta Platform.
§ Dr. J. Dickson MabonThe Depart- ment's Pipeline Inspector was informed by telephone on Monday 18th July of the discovery of these events by his contact in the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. Arrangments were immediately made to obtain from the NPD comprehensive details in order to formulate an alert in meaningful terms for the attention of all pipeline operators in the United Kingdom sector of the North Sea, with a view to initiating a programme of inspection as soon as operationally possible.
Surveys of pipeline risers are already being carried out by pipeline operators on a regular basis and reports submitted to the Pipelines Inspectorate of the Department of Energy.