Total has this morning said an operation to stop its leaking well on the Elgin platform has been successful.
The firm said a well intervention operation has stopped the G4 well leak on Elgin, 150 miles from Aberdeen in the North Sea.
This saw the firm use the West Phoenix drilling rig pump heavy mud into the leaking well. The operation had started yesterday and took 12 hours.
Experts from Total and specialist contractors will now closely monitor the G4 well in order to confirm the complete success of the intervention.
Yves-Louis Darricarrère, Total’s president of exploration and production, said: “Today, a major turning point has been achieved. Our absolute priority was to stop the gas leak safely and as quickly as possible.
“Since March 25, we have been working closely with the authorities and we have communicated transparently and will continue to do so.
“We shall now fully complete the ongoing task and take into account the lessons learnt from this incident.”
The G4 well had been leaking following an incident on March 25, which led to 238 people being evacuated from the Elgin platform and the drilling rig the Rowan Viking.
Total said from an estimated initial gas flow rate of around 2 kg/second, the leak had progressively decreased to an estimated 0.5 kg/s.