Texaco faces court over oil leak

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The United States oil giant Texaco was last night facing the prospect of criminal proceedings after admitting it was responsible for the worst leak from a British oil production rig in nine years.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said it had asked the Procurator Fiscal to consider taking legal action against Texaco for the oil spill from its North Sea Captain rig 90 miles northeast of Aberdeen. "We have completed our investigation into the spill and a report has been sent to the Procurator Fiscal's office today," a DTI official said.

Texaco said in a statement that the leak on 25 August was four times larger than first estimated. Though dwarfed by accidents in Britain, such as the 71,800-ton Sea Empress spill, by recent standards among oil producers the Texaco leak was very large.