Elgin platform
The Elgin Wellhead Platform is a production platform of the French Total Group for oil and gas in the North Sea. It is located approximately 240 kilometers east of Aberdeen, Scotland, and promotes the occurrence of the eponymous Elgin - Franklin field.
From March 25th to May 16th 2012 there flowed uncontrollably due to an incident of gas.
Construction
The base of the Elgin Wellhead Platform consists of a four-legged steel structure. On the actual platform is mounted. This is designed for unmanned operation and of the adjacent Elgin Production / Utilities / Quarters platform ( PUQ ) from remotely.
Infrastructure
The Elgin Wellhead Platform is connected to the PUQ platform via a 90 m long bridge. This helps transport lines for the subsidized oil and gas and power supply and control cables for the platform itself on the PUQ platform is being processed subsidized raw and brought from there by pipeline to the coast. About the Forties pipeline system via the oil Cruden Bay arrived in Kinneil in the county of Fife, while the gas is about 468 km long SEAL ( Shearwater Elgin Area Line) to Bacton is transported in Norfolk.
The daily flow rates of approximately 9 million cubic meters of gas and 60,000 barrels of light oil correspond to 3 % and 5.5 % of the UK total flow rates.
History
The Elgin field was discovered in 1991. The water depth in this area is 93 m, the deposits in the sandstone are located 5600 m below the sea surface. In order to develop the deposits were due to the high pressures and temperatures of 1100 bar and 190 ° C, numerous technical difficulties to overcome. Due to the geographical proximity to the 1986 Franklin Field was discovered a joint development of resources aimed at. 1995 agreement was reached between the project partners to create a production platform and a common production and processing platform for each field.
In March 1997, the drilling began. The Elgin field has been developed with a total of five holes, which were carried out one of the rig Galaxy. In March 2001, could be included on the Elgin Wellhead Platform promotion.
Natural gas leak in 2012
On 25 March 2012 at 12:15 clock came to a blowout, a leak in one of the holes, which by mid- May 2012 uncontrollably exhaled gas. Total estimated quantity of escaping gas at the start to around 200,000 cubic meters per day. In a similar incident in 1990 at another wellfield a natural gas leak in the North Sea, which has since releasing 300,000 tons of methane was formed.
The incident was the worst in the North Sea for the power company for a decade. The exiting gas consisted mostly of methane, but also contained propane, butane and hydrogen sulfide. Since it was flammable and potentially explosive, a safety zone of 2 nautical miles (nm ) for ships and 3 sm was built around the rig for aircraft and shut down the power. The PUQ platform was evacuated and brought the crew to other nearby platforms. A core team of 19 people of the original 238 people strong team initially remained on board, but was later also withdrawn. According to eyewitnesses, it was already come to problems with the well. The incident occurred when trying to shut down the corresponding borehole.
The actual leak was loud Total 4,000 meters below the seabed, but the gas escaped below the platform above the water surface. At the water surface on 30 March 2012 was to see an oily film over ten kilometers long and more than one kilometer wide.
As with many such plants undesirable residual gases are flared free and viewable through high pipes on the plant even at the Elgin. Such gases occur in the production of natural gas on regular. The flare of the Elgin platform also burned after the accident on for a few days and found, first in terms of 90 meters below the flame uncontrolled escaping gas, the greatest danger represents an explosion of gas and destruction of the platform has not been excluded. This scenario would indeed threatened not human life, but had lost all the technical means by which the outflow of the gas would have to stop in a timely manner. According to estimates by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, an environmental disaster would have been hardly avert more. March 31, 2012 Total announced that the gas torch is extinguished. The escaping gas was decreased, the entity early May 2012 to 50,000 cubic meters per day.
On 15 May 2012 Total began to pump mud into the well to seal it. By this measure, the gas leak was already closed twelve hours later, according to release from the company.
Reactions and assessments
Many experts and Umweltschutzogranisationen been advised on learning of the incident on the environmental risks of offshore production technology.
The Norwegian environmental organization Bellona Foundation estimated the risks for the environment at the Elgin - accident less than that of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico because in the Scottish field hardly leaked oil. From the well escaped gas and condensate, a yellowish, diesel-like liquid. This forms a film of dirt on the water, but is much thinner than oil and evaporates with time.
Bellona still feared damage to the flora and fauna of the North Sea. In addition, the escaping methane is a very effective greenhouse gas.
The operator company Total was created by accident image damage is major in scale: The value of total shares tumbled and in a few days, the company lost six billion euros in market value. If the gas field has been completely destroyed, Total would have to compensate its partner in the oil field. The value of the company would have fallen, according to the rating agency Fitch by around 5.7 billion euros.
Shortly after the closing of the gas leaks estimated Hans -Jochen Luhmann of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy incurred as a result of the greenhouse effect, climate damage as relatively low.