Oil slick around the Montara project: the relief effort is making progress
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- PTTEP works on Montara clean-up
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Montara relief effort makes headway
Thai operator PTT Exploration & Production has completed the drilling phase of the Montara relief well off north-west Australia and today begins a process to intercept the well that is leaking oil, gas and water into the Timor Sea.
“We are entering a very complex phase of the relief well operation. The drilling team is trying to locate and intersect a piece of steel casing about 25cm in diameter, 2.6 kilometre below the seabed,” said PTTEP Australasia director José Martins. “The intercept operation may involve several passes and complex calculations using sophisticated equipment and software to narrow down the exact location of the leaking well casing. Each pass narrows that zone of uncertainty.
“If the first approach did not succeed, each successive pass sequence takes up to four days to complete. This would mean a second pass being able to be undertaken on Friday or Saturday.”
Well control specialists Alert Well Control is providing PTTEP with technical advice on the relief well drilling programme.
Martins added that the relief well operation to drill to full depth, complete the interception and inject heavy mud to stop the flow is on schedule to be completed by the end of this week, which is three-and-a-half weeks from the start of relief drilling on 14 September.
Alert Well Control will then board the jack-up drilling rig West Atlas and the Montara wellhead platform to plug the well bore. This is expected to take another week.