LONDON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Maintenance at Royal DutchShell's Brent Alpha platform in the North Sea willresume after the completion of an operation to move a containerthat fell into the sea on Sunday evening, Shell said.
Shell had to evacuate non-essential staff from the oil rigon Monday and depressurised Brent Alpha and Brent Bravo as aprecaution following the incident, which involved the mechanicalfailure of a crane. Around 30 employees were left on theplatform to support the recovery operation.
Shell said the container had been placed in a "safe area" onthe sea bed shortly before 0800 hours on Tuesday morning.
"The operation to move the container to the sea bed, at adepth of 140 metres, was carried out by personnel on board theNormand Subsea Dive Support Vessel, which arrived on scene atapproximately 0100 hours on 30 September," a spokesperson forShell said in an emailed statement.
She added that the container would be safely recovered indue course.
Both Brent Alpha and Brent Bravo were already shut down dueto the ongoing maintenance so oil output has not been affected.
Shell added that production from the FLAGS pipeline, whichstarts at Brent Alpha and carries gas from a number of nearbyfields to the St Fergus terminal, is being returned to normal. (Reporting by Claire Milhench; editing by Jason Neely)