Total gas leak: Operation to ‘kill’ rig leak finally gets under way

The French oil giant’s prime aim of stemming the leak through a dynamic well-kill operation – pouring heavy drilling mud down into the rogue well – swung into action at 9:20am as the weather conditions in the area allowed company bosses to give the go-ahead.

The well-kill operation is being directed from the specialist support vessel the West Phoenix, a semi-submersible drilling rig. A total of 2,000 cubic metres of drilling mud, stored in the vessel’s tanks, will be pumped at a carefully monitored rate down into the G4 well in the hope that the release can at last be plugged.

It is expected to take several days before the success of the operation can be fully assessed.

Gas has been leaking into the atmosphere from the deserted platform, 150 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, since it was abandoned on 25 March.

When it was evacuated, the G4 well was said to be releasing 200,000 cubic metres of gas per day, but Total says the flow has since been considerably reduced.

The dynamic kill operation that began today offers the oil company the best chance of a speedy resolution to the gas leak. But work began on 18 April on an alternative back-up plan for the drilling rig, the Sedco 714, to drill a relief well – an operation which is expected to take at least six months to complete.

A spokesman for Total said: “Total has started the planned well intervention operation to stop the leak from the G4 well on the Elgin complex.

“The well intervention operation got under way at 9:20am this morning, with the pumping of heavy mud into the well from the main support vessel – the West Phoenix semi-submersible drilling rig – via a temporary pipeline connected to the G4 wellhead.

“Depending on the precise conditions inside the well, the operation itself and the subsequent observation period will last a few days before it is possible to confirm whether the operation has been fully effective.”

Will Codner, the Total representative on board the West Phoenix, said it had to be a “really precise” job.

“We have to be very careful what speed we pump the mud at,” he said. “We have to pump at a rate which will overcome the flow of gas from the well.”

A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “We continue to monitor the situation closely and hope this operation successfully stops the gas release.”

WWF Scotland director Dr Richard Dixon said: “Good luck to Total in stopping the gas leak from the Elgin platform.”

But he added: “The serious leak underlines the risks of the offshore oil industry, even in the familiar waters of the North Sea, and reinforces our concerns about the even riskier deepwater drilling in the Arctic.”