Transocean Inc. said Friday that a problem encountered with a drill rig has temporarily suspended drilling operations for BP on the BP-operated Thunder Horse field at Mississippi Canyon block 822 in the Gulf of Mexico.

Transocean said the cause of the shutdown relates to a drilling riser on the deepwater drillship Discoverer Enterprise that has separated. The companies reported no injuries occurred and no hydrocarbons were released due to the incident. In addition, a visual inspection of the wellhead with a remote-operated vehicle showed no wellhead damage.

Thunder Horse — the largest oil and gas discovery to date in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico — is operated by 75% stakeholder BP, with Exxon Mobil Corp. holding the remaining 25%. The Thunder Horse and Thunder Horse North fields are located in deepwater 5,800 to 6,500 feet about 150 miles southeast of New Orleans. Peak production rates are targeted at 250,000 bbl/d of liquids, and 200 MMcf/d of natural gas.

Transocean said it currently believes that the down rig could resume operations within the next two to three weeks, pending the completion of repairs and the results of an investigation into the cause of the incident. The company is the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor with more than 170 full or partially owned and managed mobile offshore drilling units, inland drilling barges and other assets utilized in the support of offshore drilling activities worldwide. Transocean specializes in technically demanding segments of the offshore drilling business, including industry-leading positions in deepwater and harsh environment drilling services.

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