Chevron Corporation confirms that cementing operations are taking place as part of its well plugging activities on an appraisal well located in the vicinity of the Frade field offshore Brazil.
Chevron also confirms that there has never been any oil flow from the wellhead and current monitoring indicates oil from nearby seep lines on the ocean floor have reduced to infrequent droplets. Chevron continues to work in close partnership with its drilling contractor, Transocean, on well plugging operations. All development well drilling in the field continues to be suspended.
Chevron has continued to monitor the oil sheen which has substantially dissipated. Current estimates place the volume of the oil sheen on the ocean surface to be less than 65 barrels. The sheen is located about 120 kilometers offshore and continues to move in a south-easterly direction away from the Brazilian coast.
Chevron continues to coordinate and deploy resources to monitor and manage the remaining sheen. The company has been scheduling a fleet of up to 18 vessels on a rotational basis, weather permitting, to control and monitor the sheen.
Full production activities have been maintained at Frade throughout the seep incident. Production operations have been monitored continuously to ensure those facilities are not contributing to the oil sheen. Daily production volumes are approximately 79,000 barrels of oil equivalent.
Chevron continues to fully inform and work with Brazilian government agencies and industry partners on all aspects of this matter.
The appraisal well was drilled in the vicinity of the Chevron operated Frade project located 370 kilometers (230 miles) offshore north east of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in water depths of approximately 1200 meters (3800 feet).
Chevron is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide. The company is involved in virtually every facet of the energy industry. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and lubricants; manufactures and sells petrochemical products; generates power and produces geothermal energy; provides energy efficiency solutions; and develops the energy resources of the future, including biofuels. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif.
[mappress] Subsea World News Staff , November 18, 2011; Image: Chevron