Turi may be abandoned

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33783, 4 March 1975, Page 1

Turi may be abandoned

(New Zealand Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH. March 3. Shell. BP and Todd Oil Services are considering abandoning the Turi-1 well and drilling at a new site off North Taranaki.

Drilling has been at a standstill on the Penrod 74 rig since Thursday when the drill string became trapped at 1625 feet. Efforts to free it have heen unsuccessful.

A decision on the fate of Turi-1 will be made some time tomorrow, says the consortium’s general manager (Mr H. R. Williams). Abandoning the well could lead to two alternatives—a fresh hole could be started from the rig’s present site by “side-tracking,” or the rig could be moved to a different site.

This will depend largelyon how much of the drilling string can be recovered, says Mr Williams. If a large! amount of pipe cannot, be re- i covered from the hole, this; could hinder work and cause further complications. BIG EFFORT Engineers on the rig have ; been working non-stop since' Thursday to free the trapped pipe. Huge amounts of seawater were first pumped down the: pipe in the hope of flushing; shingle away from the! trapped section. Next, the pipe was jolted and another hole sunk alongside the first in the hope of freeing it. “We still have other options open to us besides shifting the rig, and we are considering these now,” Mr Williams said. The problem was one of those associated with offshore drilling and one of the risks that was always a possibility, he said. Any decision to abandon the well will not be made lightly for Turi-1 has already cost the company more than $300,000. This figure is based on 10 days drilling for about $30,000 a day. As well, a big amount of casing and the drill bit would not be recoverable. Turi-1 is not the first well to run into trouble off North Taranaki.

In 1968 the Moa-1 well had to be abandoned because of a superficial cave-in before ! drilling reached 800 feet. A second well, Moa-1 B was 'also abandoned some weeks

later when complications arose in the placing of a blowout preventer.