PHE ONWJ says drilling of relief well reaches 1,464m MD

PT Pertamina Hulu Energy Offshore North West Java (PHE ONWJ), a subsidiary of state-owned energy company PT Pertamina, said the drilling of relief well has reached 1,464  meters measured depth (MD) on Monday (12/08), half way before reaching the target of 2,766 meters MD.

The drilling of the relief well is a move  by the company to permanently contain oil leakages in around the YYA-1 oil platform within the ONWJ block.

"The relief well, called YYA-1RW, will be used to inject fluid in the form of heavy mud so that the YYA-1 well can be permanently closed," said VP Relation PHE ONWJ, Ifki Sukarya.

The relief well is about 1 kilometers from the YY offshore platform, the location of YYA-1 well.

Ifki said the relief well is drilled through a directional drilling method until reaching the main source of the oil leaks. The source of oil leaks will then be closed down permanently with cement.

Once the bubbles of oil leakages are stopped, the well will be abandoned for safety reason.

PHE ONWJ said earlier that gas bubbles appeared around the YYA-1 platform on July 12, which was suspected to be triggered by well-kick at the reactivated YYA-1 well.

In order to mitigate the environmental impact of the incident, PHE ONJW has installed a static oil boom and applying layers of anticipation strategy at around the YYA-1 well.

In addition, PHE ONWJ also puts static oil boom at around the Nusantara Regas FSRU, it said.

Editing by Roffie Kurniawan