Seadrill Update on The West Atlas incident
The fire on Seadrill's West Atlas mobile offshore drilling unit and PTTEPA's Montara wellhead platform in the Timor Sea was extinguished on 3 November 2009, following a successful operation by Seadrill's West Triton mobile drilling unit to intercept and kill a leaking well.Seadrill is now working to assess and establish the damage to the West Atlas. Visual inspection confirms that the rig's steel cantilever structure, which is extended over the Montara well-head platform, has been buckled and deformed by the fire.
The next step is to send a specialist team onboard the West Atlas to establish whether it is safe for additional personnel to board in order to continue well capping operations and to do a full assessment of the structural damage to the West Atlas.
Preliminary indications, based only on the visual inspection of the damage, indicate that it could take a number of months to remove the West Atlas rig from the vicinity of the Montara wellhead platform.
The West Triton currently remains on location, approximately two kilometres from the West Atlas, as it is still required by PTTEPA to monitor and complete well plugging operations.
More information will be released as it becomes available.
