Shell Canada’s operations offshore Nova Scotia were brought to a halt over the weekend due to severe weather, which caused a 2km pipe from the Stena IceMAX drillship to fall to the seafloor.
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The Stena IceMAX, from Stena. |
The incident occurred some 225km offshore at the Cheshire well, which is part of the Shelburne basin deepwater drilling and exploration project that involves six exploration licenses, south of Halifax.
The incident occurred on Saturday (5 March) as crews were preparing for the upcoming storm. The harsh environment drilling unit was able to disconnect from the well in advance of the weather, Shell Canada said in a news release.
“Precautionary procedures were taken and completed prior to the storm, including isolating the well using the blowout preventer (BOP),” Shell Canada said. "Shortly after the well had been secured and the rig moved away from the well location, high waves and heave caused the riser tensioner system to release, resulting in the riser and lower marine riser package — which connects the rig to the well during drilling — to fall to the seabed."
A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was sent to the seabed to conduct a survey, which found the BOP intact and in good condition.
According to the company, there were no injuries in the incident, and the content of the riser had already been replaced with seawater so there was no loss of drilling fluid.
The riser is lying about 2000m deep. The incident remains under investigation by Shell Canada.
The company’s Shelburne basin exploration project will determine the potential presence of hydrocarbons in a geographical area known as the Southwest Scotian Shelf, in water depths ranging from 1500-3500m.
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