Chevron shuts Brazilian well

CHEVRON has been ordered by Brazil’s petroleum regulator to shut in one of its 11 production wells at the Frade offshore oil field, where an oil leak had occurred last month.
The decision follows the National Petroleum Agency’s safety audit of the Frade floating production, storage and offtake vessel, though Chevron said the well accounted for less than 10% of Frade’s total production of about 79,000 barrels of oil per day. While it said it would comply with the rest, it insisted that all 11 of its Frade production and the four water injection wells were safe and secure. Chevron also noted it conducted regular monitoring for the potentially explosive gas in response to reports that hydrogen sulphide gas had been detected as the basis for shutting in the well.