The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Platform’s owners say gas leak has been sealed
THE OWNER of an North Sea oil platform that spewed millions of cubic feet of gas into the atmosphere has now announced that the leak there has been “completely stopped.”
Multinational oil firm Total used an update to the markets to announce that its intervention at an Elgin platform had succeeded in halting a gas leak that began in late March.
The platform – 150 miles east of Aberdeen – was evacuated and abandoned after a rupture led to explosive natural gas spilling out of the structure.
Now, following five days of “close monitoring”, Total have announced the leak has been sealed up.
Heavy mud was pumped into the faulty well for around 12 hours last week.
The step has now been judged to have completely sealed the rupture.
Total’s next step is to re-man the Elgin facility, before using the Rowan Viking drilling rig – which was berthed at the Port of Dundee for refurbishment work early last year – to complete the seal using cement “plugs.”
The drilling of a relief well is no longer thought to be necessary.
The next phase will take “several weeks,” and it’s expected that the site will not be fully operational again until the end of the year.
Total president of exploration and production, Yves-louis Darricarrère, praised his recovery teams, but stressed that lessons would be learned.
“While we will obviously take on board any lessons to be learned, I want to congratulate all the teams, including our partners that have been mobilised with the only focus to stop the leak,” he said.
“Safely evacuating everyone from the platform and adjacent drilling rig, preventing any serious environmental impact and recovering control of the G4 well is a highly commendable effort from the teams involved.
“I also want to thank the UK authorities for their cooperation and assistance since the leak began.
“Now, it is important that we continue to work together with the authorities to conclude the ongoing investigations, take into account lessons learnt and define the necessary conditions for restarting production of the Elgin-franklin fields.”