A relief rig was en route Friday to a Gulf of Mexico well offshore Louisiana where natural gas has been flowing underground for more than a week, according to well operator Apache Corp.

During drilling operations on Feb. 4 at Main Pass 295, a well “began flowing natural gas,” spokesman John Roper told NGI on Friday. The well on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) is in 218 feet of water about 50 miles east of Venice, LA, and was being drilled by the Ensco 87 jack-up rig, he said.

Diagnostic tests appeared to indicate an underground gas migration from the bottom of the well at 8,261 feet “to another sand formation at approximately 1,100 feet,” he said.

The well has been shut in, and the blowout preventers are functioning properly, Roper said. “Apache is working with well control experts from Boots and Coots to kill the well.”

At the direction of federal officials with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Apache has mobilized the Rowan Cecil Provine rig to the Main Pass location “in the event it is determined that drilling a relief well is necessary,” Roper said.

The BSEE in a notice said no pollution had been detected. Apache has evacuated nonessential personnel; no injuries associated with the incident have been reported, Roper said.

According to Apache, in water less than 500 feet, “which constitutes most of our Gulf of Mexico Shelf region,” the company currently is the largest producer and has been the largest offshore held-by-production (HBP) acreage owner since 2004. The region contributed 14% of Apache’s global production and 15% of its worldwide revenues in 2011.

The OCS has about 3 million gross acres total that cover 622 offshore blocks with almost 80% of the blocks HBP.

©Copyright 2013Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.