Total Plugs North Sea Natural Gas Leak

Officials with French oil company Total on Monday announced one of the company's producing platforms in the North Sea has stopped leaking natural gas.

The company on May 15 pumped heavy mud into the leaking G4 well, which 12 hours later stopped the flow of natural gas, said Total.

The company will now proceed to cement shut the newly plugged well, re-man the Elgin production complex and restart the Rowan Viking drilling rig.

The well is located 149 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Late in March, the company evacuated the offshore complex, a series of platforms that separate drilling and production activities from offshore processing and living quarters, because one of the wells sprung a leak.

Roughly 200,000 cubic feet of natural gas was said to be leaking and threatened the offshore complex with fire, Reuters reported.

The company said because the well has been plugged with mud, plans to drill further relief wells will be cancelled once the cementing of the well is set. Total has said the cementing of the well is likely to take several weeks.

Now, it is important that we continue to work together with the authorities to conclude the ongoing investigations, take into account lessons learnt and define the necessary conditions for restarting production of the Elgin-Franklin fields, said Yves-Louis Darricarrère, Total's president of exploration and production.

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