London (Platts)--18Apr2012/807 am EDT/1207 GMT

French oil major Total has begun drilling the first of two relief wells as part of operations to halt its three-week old blowout and gas leak at its Elgin platform in the UK North Sea, the company said Wednesday.

In a brief update, Total said drilling rig Sedco 714 has spudded the first relief well but did not say when the drilling began.

Total has said the relief wells are expected to take up to six months to intercept and plug the leaking G4 well if a planned well kill operation from the platform is unsuccessful.

Total is currently preparing to plug the high-pressure G4 well with a "top" or "dynamic kill" procedure. If successful, the move would halt the gas leak by the end of the month, the company has said.

Total abandoned the Elgin platform on March 25 when the G4 high-pressure gas well blew out, spewing gas and condensate into the North Sea and shutting in some 130,000 b/d of oil equivalent in oil and gas production.

Last week, the blowout at the Elgin platform continued to leak some 7,000 Mcf/d of gas and some 5-9 mt/day of condensate into the North Sea although rates were slowing, Total said.

--Robert Perkins, robert_perkins@platts.com

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