Total announces that Elgin gas leak has been stopped – Top kill successful

French company Total has announced that the gas leak at the compnay’s North Sea Elgin platform has finally been stopped after a successful top kill operation, which lasted just 12 hours.

The well, located 240 km offshore Aberdeen, had been leaking natural gas into the atmosphere at an uncontrolled rate since 25 March. Yves-Louis Darricarrere, the company’s president of exploration and production said, “Today, a major turning point has been achieved. Our absolute priority was to stop the gas leak safely and as quickly as possible.” Despite the optimism, the company released a statement explaining that the situation was not yet fully resolved, “During the coming days … teams will closely monitor the well in order to confirm the complete success of the intervention.”

In case the top kill operation had failed, Total had already made preparations to drill two relief wells, only one of which had been spudded.

Edited from various sources by David Bizley

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/16052012/elgin_top_kill_operation_successful/