The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and the U.S. Coast Guard are responding to a 2 mile-by-13 mile oil sheen in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GoM), about 97 miles south of Port Fourchon, La., the Bureau said in a May 12 press release.

Shell Offshore Inc. reported that the sheen was observed in the area of its Glider Field, a group of four subsea wells located in Green Canyon Block 248. The production from these four wells flows through a subsea manifold to Shell’s Brutus Platform, which is in 2,900 ft of water.

Shell reported that production from all wells that flow to the Brutus Platform have been shut-in. There are no injuries reported and no personnel have been evacuated, BSEE said. The total subsea release from the four wells is estimated to be 2,100 barrels (bbl) of oil.

Separately, Reuters reported that the Brutus Platform began operations in 2001 and was designed with top capacity of 100 Mbbl/d of oil and 150 million cubic feet of natural gas per day; for these figures, Reuters cited "industry trade publications."

A Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile HC-144 aircrew launched to conduct an overflight assessment of the spill.

A BSEE inspector conducted an overflight of the area and is currently aboard the Brutus Platform.

BSEE will lead the incident investigation and the Coast Guard will lead in monitoring response efforts.

More information will be provided as it becomes available, BSEE said.

This report contains information from Reuters.

Offshore