Nigeria gas leak to stop in few days, Total says

LAGOS - Agence France-Presse

French energy firm Total has said it hopes to stop a natural gas leak that has led to a shutdown of one of its plants in southern Nigeria within a few days.

The company said in a statement late on May 12 that its “teams have reported significant progress in the efforts to ensure that the incident is brought under control and to stop the subsurface gas flow from the affected well … The snubbing intervention started on May 9 and if successful could stop the gas flow in the next few days,” it said, explaining that the operation consists of introducing small pipes into the well to pump heavy fluid to stop the flow.

Total said the leak had occurred during the drilling of a new well in Rivers state, forcing it to shut down the Obite gas plant on April 3. It said its team had been performing an analysis of air and water quality several times a week.

“No hydrocarbons or toxic compounds have been detected,” it said.