North Seas gas leak killed off - Total confirm

FRENCH energy giant Total has confirmed that the dynamic well kill operation to stem the uncontrolled gas leak on the Elgin platform has proved an unqualified success.

The oil company announced last week that the operation to pump heavy drilling mud down into the rogue G4 well- had succeeded in stopping the flow of gas from the ruptured well only 12 hours after the operation began.

But the company has now revealed that five days of continuous monitoring has confirmed that the leak has been “completely stopped.” And plans are now being made to start re-manning the platform which was completely abandoned when the has leak began on 25 March.

A company spokesman said: “Following five days of close monitoring, Total is now able to confirm the success of the intervention conducted on 15 May on the leaking G4 well on the Elgin complex. Since then, several inspection visits to the wellhead platform have confirmed that the leak has completely stopped.”

He added: “Following the success of the well intervention, the next phase will be to re-man the Elgin complex and restart the Rowan Viking drilling rig in order to set cement plugs in the G4 well. This phase, aiming at completing the plugging and permanent abandonment procedure of the G4 well, will take several weeks.

“Once the first cement plug is set in the G4 well by the Rowan Viking, the drilling of the ongoing relief well with the Sedco 714 will be stopped. In consultation with the appropriate authorities, it has been decided that drilling a second relief well by the Rowan Gorilla V is no longer necessary and has therefore been cancelled.”