Montara Commission, PTTEP West Atlas rig: alleged failure to follow industry standards in tie-back at 2,600 metres |
First 8 of 8 paragraphs shown The decision of the PTTEP West Atlas rig managers 'to penetrate the casing at 2,600 m must be examined in light of what is considered to be a usual approach', engineer, Brian Holland told the Montara Commission into the oil leak on the Thai Government West Atlas rig in Northern Territiry waters last year. The diagram - from PTTEP - shows part of the system of tie backs to the Montara system. Well tie-back went badly wrong: Holland said he was drilling engineer with more than forty years experience in the upstream oil and gas sector. He also held a Western Australia Occupational Safety and Health High Risk Work Licence and was official assessor. - there was failure to ‘correctly tie the string’; and - down hole plugs that were left during the suspension process were in adequate. Failure to follow industry standards? Holland said in his Submission to the Commission Of Inquiry Into The Montara Well Head Platform Uncontrolled Hydrocarbon Release; “The Mud Line suspension system provides adequate barriers to address failure of down hole plugs. I submit that all drilling programs and development plans need to conform to what are adequate industry standards. I believe that had these norms been adhered to this incident would not have occurred. Works if you follow the rules: ‘The process of tying back wells has been undertaken without serious incident for more than forty years. During that time the tools have been made more sophisticated. Further to the failure to correctly tie the string it appears that the down hole plugs that were left during the suspension process were in adequate. These plugs definitely failed. The fluid left in the hole has been shown to be in adequate. Whether the incorrect fluid was left in the well or the fluid in the hole deteriorated must be investigated. The decision to penetrate the casing at 2,600 m must be examined in light of what is considered to be a usual approach. The usual aim would be to flood the shoe of the casing with heavy mud'. ...Log in to read rest of Article or image. |