OSLO, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Production at the Eldfisk and Emblaoilfields in the North Sea has resumed, operator ConocoPhillips said on Sunday, following a shutdown on New Year's Eveon concerns that the installations could be hit by a driftingbarge.
The vessel had been drifting towards BP's Valhallplatform and ConocoPhillips's Eldfisk and Embla, which lie inthe middle of the North Sea between Norway and Britain,prompting staff evacuations.
ConocoPhillips' Embla and Eldfisk fields are part of theEkofisk crude oil stream, one of four North Sea crudesunderpinning the global Brent oil benchmark.
The Ekofisk stream was scheduled to load about 258,000barrels per day (bpd) in January, and the loading programme forFebruary is expected to be issued on Monday.
"We followed our procedures and started normalisation afterthe barge passed Eldfisk Complex Dec. 31, and production wasresumed according to these procedures," a ConocoPhillipsspokesman said in an email.
He did not say when output resumed or at what rates were thefields producing when they shut.
BP said on Thursday, after the barge had drifted passedValhall, that it had started normalising operations and that itusually took 24 hours to restart output after a completeshutdown.
Valhall, which is operated by BP and co-owned by Hess, was producing at a rate of about 50,000 barrels per daybefore it shut, BP has said. (Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, editing by William Hardy)