Canadian oil and gas company Husky Energy last week accidentally spilled 1098 liters of an anti-microbial agent from its SeaRose FPSO, located in the Atlantic Ocean, 350 kilometers to the southeast of St. John’s. The incident happened on Thursday morning, June 18.

According to offshore safety regulator C-NLOPB, Husky Energy reported that approximately 1098 liters of the s X-Cide 450 anti-microbial agent were inadvertently released in diluted form from the FPSO

"No affected wildlife have been observed to date. Monitoring from the SeaRose and the Skandi Vinland continue and the C-NLOPB is in close contact with Husky officials as well as government agencies, including Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada," the C-NLOPB said Friday.

X-Cide 450 (Health Canada Registration Number 26965) is commonly used by the petroleum industry. It contains methanol and glutaraldehyde, an active ingredient that prevents the growth of sulfur-reducing bacteria during the injection of seawater into a petroleum reservoir. 

In this incident, Husky has reported that it was inadvertently released along with 1,916,000 liters of water that were intended for reservoir injection.

No workers were injured, all wells are in a safe state, and production operations continue, the offshore safety regulator said.

"The C-NLOPB is actively following up on the incident with other agencies, and will carefully review Husky’s determination of causal factors, root causes, and learnings to ensure implementation of the required corrective measures. Decisions on possible regulatory enforcement action will follow in due course," C-NLOPB added.