Plans to drill for gas at a second site off the Peterborough coast have been deferred after two moorings on the gas rig failed.
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Cooper Energy announced earlier this month that it had discovered gas at the Annie gas field as part of an $80 million drilling project, and while the wellbore had now been securely plugged with cement, abandonment of the well had been delayed because of the failed moorings.
The company said two of the eight mooring chains on Diamond Offshore's Ocean Monarch drilling rig had failed.
"This incident has required repair to the affected chains and inspection of the remaining six chains," it said.
That work is expected to be completed later this week which will then allow the company to complete the abandonment operations.
"Analysis into the root cause of the failure of the two mooring chains may take more than a month to complete," the company said.
"Therefore, Cooper Energy has proposed to defer the drilling of the Elanora-1 well that was scheduled to follow Annie-1." Drilling of the Elanora-1 well will be considered as part of the company's proposed future drilling campaigns.
"While we are closing the drilling campaign early after the completion of one well, we are pleased with its outcome," managing director David Maxwell said.
"The discovery of the Annie gas field has added to our portfolio of development opportunities which can add to our reserves and production growth. Elanora remains as an exploration target to test in the future."
Mr Maxwell said the company was looking to develop the Annie well as soon as possible.
He said the earliest it could access a rig to resume drilling works would be late 2020 or early 2021. The company would then drill a development well at the Annie site and being exploration wells at Elanora.
Mr Maxwell said that the company had abandoned plans to push ahead with exploration of Elanora at the moment over safety concerns after the failure of the moorings. "Until we know what caused it, we don't want to run the risk," he said.
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