Santos wells leaking offshore WA - report
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environment Management Authority (Nopsema) on Tuesday said that it would not comment on oil and gas major Santos’ environment plans at its Legendre fields, offshore Western Australia.
Media reports on Tuesday suggested that an unknown number of disused wells have been leaking gas over the last ten years and that Santos submitted a plan to Nopsema in early 2022 rejecting action to stem the leaks as "not technically feasible".
It was reported that, instead, the ASX-listed company had proposed monitoring the leaks for another five years.
Media reports from the Nine newspapers claimed that the leaks at the Legendre fields were first discovered in 2013, two years after work was done to seal the wells.
Nopsema told Mining Weekly Online on Tuesday that the regulatory body had requested Santos undertake activity to show the cause of the reported seepage and required that Santos submit an environment plan to demonstrate the appropriate management of any works undertaken.
“Nopsema cannot comment on specifics of an environmental plan while it is under assessment,” the watchdog said in a statement.
Santos was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.
Nopsema regulates and monitors operational and temporarily abandoned wells and has no regulatory authority to monitor the integrity of wells permanently abandoned under a previous regulatory regime of designated authorities. Currently, Nopsema has regulatory oversight of 873 wells overall, as covered by Well Operations Management Plans. Of these, 457 are operational wells, 326 are shut-in, suspended or temporarily abandoned wells, and 90 have completed abandonment operations and are pending Nopsema’s acceptance of a final abandonment report.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
FlameBlock is a proudly South African company that engineers, manufactures and supplies fire intumescent and retardant products to the fire...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Developed to exceed the latest EN 15964 standards for police breathalysers proving that it will remain accurate and reliable for many years to come.
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
