Statoil Shuts Down Mongstad Oil Refinery's Gasoline Production Due Gas Leak

Statoil has shut down the production of gasoline at its Mongstad refinery on Norway's west coast following a hydrogen gas leak on Tuesday, the company said.

"We evacuated 600 people from the facility just after 1pm (1100 GMT)," said a company spokesman. "We have closed down one of the areas of the refinery, the one producing gasoline."

It was too early to say when production could resume and at what rate the unit was producing when the incident occurred, he said, adding that the alert was now over.

"The alarm is being called off," he said.

(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche)