Total Begins Well Kill Operation

French major Total has announced that this morning it has begun its well intervention work on the Elgin platform in the UK North Sea.

The operation, which Total says began at 09:20 (GMT) this morning, sees the company begin pumping mud into a leaking wellhead. This wellhead, the G4 wellhead, has previously been identified as the source of a gas leak which caused 238 personnel to be evacuated and the platform to be shut down in March.

The mud is pumped from a semi-submersible drilling rig, the West Phoenix, via a temporary pipeline connecting to the platform. 

Total says it will be able to tell within days whether the operation has been successful following the operation itself and subsequent observation of the leak site. 

In conjunction with this mud kill, Total has already spudded a relief well, the first of two planned for Elgin. This well, which has used the Sedco 714 rig, continues its operations.

However, a second rig, which was planned to use the Rowan Gorilla V rig, has yet to begin operations.