Drilling has begun on an offshore Nigeria relief well that will enable Chevron to seal the troubled Funiwa 1A natural gas well and stop its associated fire, the company announced on 17 February 2012.

Chevron Nigeria previously announced that it would use the Transocean Baltic rig, on loan from ExxonMobil, for the drilling program. Once the well is complete, Chevron will commence cementing and abandonment of Funiwa 1A, the company said in a release.

Chevron spokesman Lloyd Avram said the company has no time estimate for completion at this point. Avram also expressed the company’s confidence that local communities face no risk from the still-burning fire at Funiwa 1A.

“The fire at the incident site is substantially smaller,” Avram said in a statement to OilOnline.com. “All independent air testing results onshore and offshore show no detectable levels of pollutants. No oil was spilled or flowed from the well.”

On 3 February, Chevron spokesman Sean Comey said in a statement to OilOnline.com on that Chevron Nigeria Ltd. (CNL) had deteremined only one relief well would be necessary at the site.

‘[CNL] has assessed the conditions and drilling plans with a third party well control firm and has concluded that deploying a single rig to drill the relief well allows us to focus our efforts, providing the quickest and safest way to put out the fire and permanently seal the well in an effective and expedient manner.’

Fire broke out at Funiwa 1A on January 16 2012 during the K.S. Endeavor jack-up rig’s drilling operations. The fire killed two workers and destroyed the rig and an associated barge, Hercules’ Mako. 152 workers had to be evacuated.

The well had been drilled to a depth of 12,945ft at the time of the blaze. The well is six miles offshore in water depths of approximately 40ft.

Funiwa field is located in Nigeria’s oil mining lease 86. Chevron operates the lease with 40% interest on behalf of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corp., which holds 60%.