Natural Gas Well Leaking off Louisiana Coast To Be Shut In

A crew of five workers who were plugging an old, non-producing natural gas well was evacuated from the platform when the well began leaking gas, condensate and salt water. The well, which is off the coast of Louisiana, is expected to be shut in Wednesday afternoon or evening, Talos Energy LLC said.

Talos personnel were on site before noon Wednesday, awaiting the go-ahead from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) before beginning the shut-in procedures.

“In an abundance of caution, we decided to evacuate the platform and mobilize our spill response team,” Timothy S. Duncan, president of Talos Energy LLC, the company that owns Energy Resources Technology (ERT) said.

ERT is the owner of the platform.

The loss of well control occurred on the Ship Shoal Block 225 Platform B. Workers were attempting to temporarily plug Well #B2 when a sheen on the water was first noticed. The sheen, consisting of a mixture of light oil and water, was about 4 miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide. A sheen of that size would be equivalent to about six barrels of oil and should evaporate, Duncan said.

There was some evaporation of the sheen overnight, a spokesperson for Talos said Wednesday.

When the leak was first noticed, the BSEE and the U.S. Coast Guard responded and were investigating the cause of the loss of well control.

The cause of the leak was probably due to the age of the tubing on the well, Duncan said.