Clean up operations: at the Montara field off Australia
PTTEP setback at Montara
PTTEP’s second attempt to intercept the leaking well in the Montara field off Australia has failed.
The damaged well, which blew out on 21 August, has been leaking hydrocarbons into the Timor Sea for seven weeks.
“We will now re-run the vector magnetics tools tonight to see how close we are to the target. Our drilling experts are hopeful that we will not need such a long side track to hit it on the next pass,” PTTEP Australasia director José Martins said today.
“While not making an interception on today’s pass is disappointing, the probability of success given the plus or minus one metre accuracy on the target was not in our favour. The closer we get to the target with each pass, the more certain we become of its location,” Martins said.
The drilling team expects to know tomorrow when it should be able to make the
next pass to intercept the leaking well. It is aiming to do this on the weekend.
The aim is to intersect a piece of steel casing 25 centimetres in diameter, 2.6 kilometres below the seabed.
After successfully intercepting the leaking well, the operation will enter two separate and sequential phases, stopping the flow and plugging the well bore.