Work to secure the Snorre well in the North Sea is continuing at full pitch. A total of 65 people are now working on the platform and a plan has been made for a permanent securing of the well.
New supplies of drilling mud and other materials have been delivered to the platform.
"Personnel on the field are doing a formidable job to re-establish barriers in the well, but it is still too early to say when production will resume," says Øivind Reinertsen, senior vice president for Statoil’s Tampen business cluster. "There are still many demanding operations ahead of us."
A weakness in a casing was specified earlier, but Mr Reinertsen emphasises that the operation carried out prior to the gas leak was normal procedure. He does not wish to speculate as to the cause of the incident and notes that the inquiry into the incident will investigate that.