[UPDATE] Depleted Offshore Gulf Gas Well Suffers Leak

Published Jul 10, 2013 10:00 AM by The Maritime Executive

Talos Energy LLC has released the following statement regarding the natural gas Ship Shoal 225 B-2 well incident:

During operations on July 8 to permanently plug and abandon our non-producing Ship Shoal 225 B-2 well, which is located about 74 miles southwest of Port Fourchon, salt water containing a small amount of gas and light condensate began to flow to the surface and around the wellhead.

In an abundance of caution, we decided to evacuate the platform and mobilize our spill response team, we notified the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and the U.S. Coast Guard, and we shut-in two other producing wells at the platform.

All 5 personnel on the platform were evacuated safely.

We are currently taking all available action to shut the well in as soon as possible, including engaging Wild Well Control who has returned to the platform to commence well control operations. We expect that the well will be shut in within the next 24 hours.

Ship Shoal 225 B-2 well is an older gas condensate well in a field developed in the 1970’s that last produced mostly water in 1998 at a rate of 65 thousand cubic feet of gas per day, 9 barrels of condensate per day and 1,150 barrels of water per day at a low flowing pressure of 175 psi, and the well was unable to produce without artificial lift.

We were plugging and abandoning the well as part of our active idle iron removal program in coordination with the BSEE, and we believe that the age of the tubing may have contributed to the incident.

Currently, there is a light sheen on the water, as described by BSEE and U.S. Coast Guard flyovers, which we anticipate will evaporate quickly; because the well is flowing mostly water at very low pressure, we believe that approximately six barrels of light condensate have been discharged in the last 24 hours based upon the four mile wide by three quarter mile long sheen as reported by the BSEE and the U.S. Coast Guard.

We are focused on the safety of our personnel and taking all appropriate measures to limit any environmental impact and shut in the well as soon as possible, and we are fully cooperating with BSEE and the Coast Guard throughout our operations.