French supermajor Total says its leak from a platform on the Elgin field in the UK North Sea could be top-killed by the end of the month, bring to an end a leak of gas and condensate known to have been flowing since 25 March.
“We are working hard and if all goes as planned we envisage by the end of this month we should be having control of the well,” Philippe Guys, managing director for regional operations at Total, was quoted as saying.
Total is preparing to cap the well by forcing mud into it, and is also planning to drill a relief well and further backup relief well. Wild Well Control, the Texan firm which worked on end the Macondo oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, arrived in Scotland during the weekend to respond to the leak, joining local company Oil Spill Response.
Total SA representatives and Wild Well Control workers boarded the Elgin on 6 April, and reported visual signs that the leak rate is decreasing.
Speaking shortly after returning from the platform, Wild Well Control said: “We achieved our goals. Everything went as we would have hoped and the planned well intervention is achievable. There is certainly no showstopper to launch the well control operation.”
Total estimates shut-in and remediation costs are running at $2.5 million a day.
