One year after the ANP cleared Chevron to restart production from four horizontal wells at Frade – 7-FR-21HP-RJS, 7-FR-42H-RJS, 7-FR-8HP-RJS and 7-FR-25HP-RJS – the company now received the approval to re-open all the remaining wells in a controlled manner.
However, Chevron is still not allowed to carry out drilling or water injection activities at Frade, as the regulator is waiting for the final report on the second incident that occurred in the field.
The first Frade spill took place in November 2011, when a powerful kick at a depth of 567 metres below the seabed caused crude to seep up from several small cracks in the ocean floor near the wellhead.
Chevron took weeks to control the spill of nearly 3000 barrels of...
