The North Slope well that suffered a blow out last month has been plugged. Crews pumped cement into the well Sunday to seal it off. Repsol, the Spanish Company that owns the well, decided it was easier to abandon the well than get it working again. Jim Regg is a petroleum engineer with the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. He says cold weather hampered the well control operation.
The blow out happened on Feb. 15. Gas stopped flowing a day later but extreme cold slowed the well control operation. Crews started working today to clean up the drilling mud that ended up coating the snow covered area surrounding the rig. The Department of Environmental Conservation doesn’t know how long that phase of the operation will take. The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is investigating the well blow out.
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Annie Feidt is the broadcast managing editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at afeidt@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Annie here.
