Major oil pipeline to close for repairs to crack

The Forties pipeline will be closed to repair a cracked pipe.

The crack and leak was discovered last week near Netherley in Aberdeenshire, with one family asked to move out as a precaution.

The pipeline's owner Ineos said today that, despite pressure being reduced, the crack had widened from 106mm to 155mm.

A spokesman said: "The incident management team has now decided that a controlled shutdown of the pipeline is the safest way to proceed."

The Forties pipeline carries crude North Sea oil across land for processing at Grangemouth.

Ineos director Tom Crotty said the repair work will probably take a "couple of weeks'', but he did not believe there would be any impact on the public.

Ineos only recently bought the pipeline, which takes mainly oil to the company's refinery at Grangemouth. It's understood that the crack in the three-foot wide pipe measured around 15 centimetres, but there had been no leakage