Eglin Total oil platform in danger! Gas leak!

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Eglin Total oil platform in danger! Gas leak!




by Christophe » 30/03/12, 09:26

Almost 2 years after the "Mexican oil spill" in the Gulf of Mexico by BP (see this big subject https://www.econologie.com/forums/louisiane- ... t9659.html et https://www.econologie.com/explications- ... -4274.html ) and that "everyone" has probably already forgotten ... it is TOTAL's turn in the North Sea to experience a similar problem but with ... gas!

Ah yes but the gas is clean ... it is not seen ...

No doubt that the experience of BP will be used ... between oil tankers must help each other eh :D

Total destabilized by a major gas leak in the North Sea

(Easybourse.com) The oil group, faced since Sunday with a large gas leak on a platform in the North Sea, suggests a period of six months to solve the problem. The title falls on the Paris Stock Exchange.
The gas leak that caused the evacuation of the Total Eglin platform in the North Sea continues Tuesday but the situation is "stable", according to the oil group that says it is doing everything possible to find a quick solution to this situation and minimize the impact of the accident.

The risks posed to the environment are at this stage minimal, says the French oil group, while agreeing that it is "the biggest incident that we have encountered for more than ten years in the North Sea". Given the risk of explosion, the group evacuated the 238 employees working on the platform in the night from Sunday to Monday.

According to BBC Scotland, a cloud of gas from the platform is visible about 11 kilometers around. In addition, 23 tons of liquid gas would have escaped at sea in the last 48 hours. According to Total, it is a light condensate, which should spontaneously evaporate from the surface of the water.

Still, the group does not yet know how it will plug the leak, which would come from a well condemned twelve months ago because of "problems". “There are two options for intervening. One is to dig a relief well, which could take about six months. The other is an intervention on the platform to seal the well (...) which would be a faster option, ”David Hainsworth, safety, health and environment manager at Total Exploration & Production UK, told Reuters. "We plan to decide on a plan in the days to come," he added.

Following these remarks, the stock is in decline on the Paris Stock Exchange. To 15h30, it drops 6,3%, signing the worst performance of the CAC 40.


A fairly complete article in the world: http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2 ... _3244.html


Since Sunday March 25, Total has been unable to contain a serious gas leak on its Elgin-Franklin platform, in the North Sea. "This is the biggest incident for Total in the North Sea for at least ten years," admitted a spokesperson for the group. Thursday, March 29, the situation was "stabilized", but the leak is far from being sealed.

* What is known about this platform?

Located at 240 km east of Aberdeen (Scotland), the Elgin-Franklin platform is one of the largest installations of the French Major. More than two hundred employees worked there at the time of the accident. The platform is laid on a water depth of 93 meters, while the exploited reservoir is more than 5 kilometers under the seabed. 130 000 barrels of oil equivalent are produced daily, 2,6% of The production of Total. 60 000 barrels go to the French group, the rest to its partners, notably the Italian ENI. Total has about 20 oil rigs in the North Sea. From three main deposits (Elgin, Franklin, Alwyn), multiple adjacent fields (Jura, West Franklin, Islay ...) were exploited in order to maximize the profitability of underwater infrastructures.

* What are the peculiarities of this deposit?

"Elgin-Franklin will be a milestone in the history of the oil industry", declared Christophe de Margerie, then managing director of the exploration and production division of Total, during the presentation of the deposit in the early 2000s. And for good reason, the site concentrates technological challenges. Elgin is a so-called "HP-HT" deposit, in other words high pressure and high temperature (190 ºC). The tanks buried at 5 m are like gigantic pressure cookers. The pressure there reached 300 bars, the equivalent of a weight of over a ton on a thumbnail. In addition, gas, like condensates (very light oils), are acidic and corrosive due to high levels of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. So many constraints that Total had overcome to develop these fields in production, making "a world benchmark".

* Where does the leak come from?

After four days of searching, Total managed to locate the source of the leak on Thursday. It comes from a disused well 4 meters deep. "What we know is that the leak comes from a disused well, a well that was plugged a year ago, in a rock formation 000 meters deep," said a spokesperson.

* What solutions are envisaged to plug it?

Total indicated Thursday that it was still examining all possibilities to stop the leak. "We are still in a phase of evaluating solutions," said a spokesperson. A first solution was put forward on Tuesday, that of digging a relief well to lower the pressure of the main well. An operation that would take about six months. An intervention on the platform itself, faster and undoubtedly less expensive, seems for the moment ruled out because it exposes the lives of technicians. Finally, the most optimistic hypothesis is that the leak will stop on its own.

* Is there a risk of explosion?

On Tuesday, Total's director of health, safety and environment, David Hainsworth, admitted that an explosion risk existed. "The gas is flammable, but the power supply has been cut off on the platform to minimize the risk of sparks, however it is obvious that there is a risk," he admitted on the BBC. Especially since the flare, the high metal tower used to burn the natural gas waste is still lit. Nevertheless, "the wind pushes the gas plume in a direction opposite to that of the flare. And according to the weather forecast, it will blow in the same direction for five to six days," he added. While some experts highlight the risk of explosion if the winds change direction, Total dismissed it on Wednesday. The flare "is an integral part of the security system" and "poses no immediate risk". Thursday, if the weather conditions remained favorable, a cloud of gas was nevertheless observed within 100 meters of the still active flare.

* What means are implemented in the area?

On Monday, the British authorities decided to set up a 2 nautical maritime exclusion zone (3,7 km) around the platform and to prohibit overflight within 5,5 km, the cloud of gas could ignite at all times. On Thursday, two ships carrying fire fighting equipment took position near the platform. Another ship, with an underwater robot on board with a camera to inspect its condition, is also on site.

* Are there any risks to the environment?

"The first indications show that there is no significant impact on the environment," the group said on Tuesday. However, the leak caused the formation of a gas cloud but also an effusion of liquid, causing the formation at sea of ​​a fine slick of hydrocarbons. Spotted by a surveillance plane, iridescence would testify to the presence of drilling mud and light products associated with gas. Quoted by the Guardian, Martin Preston, specialist in marine pollution, indicates that "the release of methane represents a very important risk of explosion", but that it is also "an acid gas", containing hydrogen sulphide, very toxic to humans and aquatic life. A very localized increase in fish mortality cannot be ruled out. "Simon Boxall, oceanographer at the University of Southampton, specifies that" the environmental damage will not be known for a week or more, when we have makes measurements to assess the level of pollutants in the water ".

* Have there been any problems with this well?

As reported by journalists from Le Monde, the Norwegian environmental association Bellona received the testimony of an official of the unions of employees working in the British offshore. The latter claims that Total had already encountered significant difficulties, and on numerous occasions, on this well. To the point of having made the decision, a few weeks ago, to try to "kill" him. Between 2009 and 2010, Elgin-Franklin had already been pinned for gas and oil leaks (spill of 4 kg of hydrocarbons in total) and security failures.

Other nearby facilities have also experienced incidents. The most serious took place on July 6, 1988 with the explosion of the Piper Alpha gas platform, which then caused the death of 167 people (62 survivors). And led to a strengthening of standards and safety instructions. But the reality is very different, as equipment failures, often dilapidated, are commonplace in the region. In 2011, according to the British security control body, safety on board was insufficient for 96% of installations in the North Sea and 20% of them showed "serious failures". At the same time, the Guardian revealed that large and dangerous oil or gas spills have followed one another for years, at the rate of one per week, and in complete discretion.
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by Christophe » 30/03/12, 13:35

An interesting article on the regulation of offshore drilling ... often located in international zones (so: it belongs to the 1er who finds it in case of profits and it no longer belongs to anyone in case of problems ...) ...

http://www.novethic.fr/novethic/ecologi ... 137047.jsp

What regulation for offshore oil drilling?

The leak on the Total group's Elgin platform off Scotland may require six months of intervention. The accident caused a cloud of gas on the area, with risks of ignition and toxicity. As a recent report from the Economic, Social and Environmental Council points out, off-shore exploitation is constantly developing but it still has little regulation at international, European or French level.


Leak off the coast of Scotland, explosion of the DeepWater Horizon oil platform in the United States ... "These repeated accidents must highlight the risks of these offshore activities, which account for up to 35% of oil production and are In full growth, "recalled the 13 last March the Economic, Social and Environmental Council in a notice published on the subject.

Since 1976, there are a dozen major oil accidents whose human, environmental and financial impacts have been considerable. In May 2010, after the oil spill provoked by BP, Europe wanted to make sure that it was prepared for the eventuality of such an accident. In October 2011, it has a framework entitled "the challenge of securing offshore oil and gas activities"; but if a regulatory project is underway, it will not be implemented for a few years. As for France, it has a "complex, incomplete and ambiguous legal framework," say the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (EESC) rapporteurs in an opinion adopted on 13 in March. Regarding the status of the platforms, "there are no specific international regulations for offshore," they continue. Finally, a crucial question also remains unanswered: that of insurance, which today cap at 1,5 billion dollars for oil companies, when the BP catastrophe amounts to at least 40 billion ...

In the case of the leak on the Elgin platform of the Total group, the first financial consequences were immediate, as Total remains the first capitalization of the CAC 40. The accident resulted in a fall in the 5,96% stock, resulting in a decrease of 0,92 over the overall index.

Deeper and deeper and more risky

In France, the need to supervise these activities is all the more pressing, according to the EESC, that a deposit has recently been discovered off Guyana (see related article), where the oil turns out to be of good quality but Located under 2048 depth meters ... but also in the Mediterranean off Marseilles, with a license in progress in the ministries of ecology and industry (see box). Deeper and deeper, offshore drilling also involves more and more risks to the environment, resulting in uncontrollable situations. However, "with 11 million km2 of maritime spaces in the world, France has a particular international responsibility in the protection of these maritime spaces", underlines Anne-Marie Ducroux, president of the Environment section of the EESC. "It is also potentially threatened, not only because it borders on the Caribbean Sea and the North Sea, historical oil and gas offshore basins, but also because its Atlantic shores And the Mediterranean could be affected by such disasters, "the Council stresses. Offshore vessels can contain the equivalent of 2 million barrels per day, half of what was dumped in the Gulf of Mexico by BP.

Regulation and social acceptability of permits

A group such as Total has 78% of its production off-shore, of which 30% is derived from the deep offshore, up to 2000 meters - the "ultra-deep" being beyond and up to 'to 3000 meters-. This offshore share continues to grow and should represent 50% of new productions in 2015, according to the IEA. For Jacques Beall, rapporteur and member of the Environment and Nature group of the EESC, "in France, the question of shale gas exploration has certainly modified the mining code * by asking for investigations on environmental impacts, but concerning oil platforms we believe that a strict and as demanding system as that of classified installations must be applied. In addition, the authority to authorize drilling permits must be separated from control and monitoring. Today this is not the case, so we are in the same situation as that of the United States at the time of the BP disaster. Since the oil spill, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) has effectively separated the licensing activities and the drilling monitoring and control activities.

The rapporteurs also draw on their recommendations from the UK model, which has moved from a merely prescriptive regulation to the Safety Case process, requiring companies to prove that their facilities are safe throughout the system's lifecycle.

In parallel with the strengthening of the regulation, the rapporteurs call for the implementation of public consultations prior to the projects, which at present do not exist.
"The consultation procedures upstream of the projects do not apply to the off-shore, explains Alain Feretti, rapporteur and member of the group of the Unaf. We do not take into account the elected representatives, the local residents or the expertise that could be useful, with the risk that the population will discover the permits when it is too late and strongly opposed, as was the case with shale gas in the south of France ". The rapporteurs do not comment on the merits of these offshore farms but argue for their social acceptability and the development of a "risk-taking culture" by all stakeholders.


* The mining code regulates the issuance of operating permits.
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dedeleco
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by dedeleco » 30/03/12, 14:25

As for nuclear power, as long as it does not flare up, for months, we seem to be in France, as for nuclear power, as long as it does not fester with us !!

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by Christophe » 03/04/12, 23:19

The next ... or rather the beginning!

http://www.novethic.fr/novethic/ecologi ... 137193.jsp

Total's platform, "drilling of the extreme", had already fled a lot

The Elgin platform, off Scotland, was Total's laboratory and showcase for deep hydrocarbon exploitation. But leaks had already tainted the production.

Whatever the outcome, the March 25 gas leak on the Elgin gas platform will weigh on the image and plans of the French oil giant Total. Not only because the Elgin-Franklin Reservoir provided 7% of the gas produced in the UK and that Total lost between 10 and 15 millions of dollars (between 7,5 and 11 millions of euros) per day (loss of revenue, costs of 'intervention…).

This accident is above all a blow for Total because it happens on the platform that was to be the showcase of the future projects of the company. "Elgin-Franklin will be a milestone in the history of the oil industry," said Christophe de Margerie, then Director General "Exploration and Production" and today a pedigree of Total, in the presentation brochure of the project broadcast in July 2002 .

Like all players in the petroleum sector, Total has betted massively on hydrocarbons in "deep offshore", that is to say, oil and gas located several kilometers below sea level. Both the cost and the technology required for their operation are significant. But the decline in so-called conventional hydrocarbon resources has changed the situation.
(...)


http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog ... h-sea-rigs
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dedeleco
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by dedeleco » 04/04/12, 01:41

In tons max 4,9tonnes, it's nothing at all, these leaks passed !!!
Compared to the extraction objective.

The problem is this one, not mastered quickly!
Less violent than BP's, no fire, for now. ?????

The main risk of extracting the gases from cold bottoms, by circulating them, is to heat them up too much and to have a huge explosion by their sudden release, by km3, like those of 56 millions of years ago. with huge bubbles digging huge holes, still visible !!!

The Japanese have boat to extract them.
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by moinsdewatt » 15/05/12, 18:57

Total launches the attempt to clog the leak in the North Sea:

PARIS / LONDON (Reuters) - Total began Tuesday to inject sludge into the Elgin well in the North Sea, trying to plug an uninterrupted gas leak for more than a month and a half.

"The operation began today at 9:20 am (local time) by injecting heavy sludge into the well from the West Phoenix, semi-submersible drilling rig, via a temporary pipeline connected to the head of the G4 well," a announced the French tanker in a press release.

The final result of this operation cannot be determined before an observation period of "a few days", he adds.

............

http://www.boursorama.com/actualites/to ... 80f2add9c3
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