France's Total has requested permission from the UK's Health and Safety Executive to restart its Elgin-Franklin field complex in the North Sea and hopes to restart production "as soon as possible within the first quarter," the company said Thursday.
Total abandoned the Elgin platform in March 2012 when the high-pressure G4 gas well blew out, shutting in around 130,000 b/d of oil equivalent in oil and gas production.
Initially Total said it wanted to bring the fields back by the end of 2012, but it missed that target.
"Total is working to restart Elgin as soon as possible within the first quarter," a company spokeswoman told Platts.
"It depends on the approval of our revised safety case by the HSE -- we submitted the documents to them at the end of November," she said.
Earlier Thursday, an HSE spokesman told Platts the organization had received a safety case from Total.
"HSE is considering its response," the spokesman said.
The spokesman said HSE has up to 90 days to assess safety cases, once submitted, although the process can be shorter than this.
If the documents were submitted at the end of November, then the HSE would have to deliver its verdict by the end of February.
Total needs the HSE's permission to restart the Elgin and Franklin fields. HSE is the UK regulator for work-related health, safety and illness.
A source close to Total told Platts Wednesday that a mid-February restart date for the fields would be possible, although he was unable to confirm an exact date. He added that the return would initially be limited in terms of volume.
Total halted the seven-week long leak from the G4 well with a "top kill" operation in May 2012, averting the potential disaster of the gas igniting.
Since then, the Elgin shutdown has caused the loss of some 50,000 boe/d output net to Total. The fields can produce up to 280,000 boe/d, of which 175,000 b/d is condensate and 15.5 million cu m/day is gas, according to Total.
Source:
http://news.chemnet.com/Chemical-News/detail-1801379.html
