Work resumes on gas leak platform

Mar 11 2013

Production has resumed on a North Sea platform almost a year after it was evacuated due to a major gas leak.

All 238 workers were flown off the Elgin platform, about 150 miles (241km) offshore from Aberdeen, on March 25 2012 when the leak was discovered.

The leak was stopped last May in an operation which pumped heavy mud and cement into the underwater well and the Health and Safety Executive accepted an updated safety case last week.

At the height of the incident, around 200,000 cubic metres of gas was escaping every day, but the level reduced when workers drilled a relief well.

Production resumed on Saturday but it could take two years to return to the output of the platform before the gas leak, operator Total said.

Some underwater wells have been abandoned in the wake of the leak and the company is planing to drill in new fields in the region to increase its production levels.

Yves-Louis Darricarrere, president of Total Upstream, said: "Managing this industrial incident securely for our personnel and with limited impact on the environment was our priority.

"The causes of the incident are now known and all necessary measures have been taken to enable us to resume production and carry out future exploitation of the fields from the Elgin/Franklin area in the best safety conditions.

"Lessons learnt have been shared with the UK authorities and will also be shared with the wider industry. We now focus on continuing our development plans to bring back the full potential from these fields."

The leak caused Total to miss out on around £83 million of potential income, according to its financial results for the second quarter of 2012. The company still made a profit of £1.25 billion in that period.