Another oil rig in the gulf explodes / burns

[Plastic]

Not much on it now, but all 13 people survived and are accounted for.

Caught it on CNN just now, they do not yet know the cause.

Owned by Mariner Energy.

[Silver Rocket Bitches!]

Just saw that myself...


Blast on gulf oil rig injures 1 worker


By William Branigin and Debbi Wilgoren
Thursday, September 2, 2010; 12:25 PM

An offshore oil rig exploded Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico, injuring at least one worker, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

All 13 people on board the Vermilion Oil Rig 380 have been accounted for, and the one who was injured is being transported to a hospital, Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough said.

The others were in "immersion suits" in the water awaiting rescue, he said.

The rig is believed to be on fire, Colclough told CNN in a live telephone interview. He said it has not yet been determined whether there is a leak as a result of the explosion, but he noted reports that "the rig was not actively producing" any oil or gas.

Multiple Coast Guard, Navy and civilian vessels are en route to the site of the explosion west of the location of the April 20 blast on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that caused a massive oil spill.

Colclough said eight Coast Guard helicopters and at least three cutters were among the craft headed to the site.

The latest blast was reported by a commercial helicopter company about 10:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, the Coast Guard said.

The explosion took place even as senior BP officials were in Washington briefing Michael Bromwich, the head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, on lessons learned in the protracted effort to plug the blown-out Macondo well drilled by BP. That blowout caused an explosion that killed 11 people on the Deepwater Horizon rig, leading to the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

The Vermilion Oil Rig 380 is owned by Mariner Energy. According to the company's Web site, "Mariner is among the largest independent oil and gas companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico. At year-end 2009, the company had interests in nearly 350 federal offshore leases with more than 110 of those in development. The company has participated in more than 35 deepwater projects, operating more than half of them."
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Mariner Energy has been exploring since 1996 in water from 1,300 feet to 7,100 feet deep. It effectively doubled the size of its operations in 2006, when it acquired Forest Oil Corp. The company says on its Web site that it is pursuing a two-pronged strategy of exploiting its "legacy assets," boosting production from older fields to generate cash for new exploration.

In its recent Securities and Exchange filing, the company said that the Interior Department's moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico had affected Mariner's operations. It said its operations "may be impacted in the future by increased regulatory oversight, which may increase the cost of" Outer Continental Shelf wells "and delay drilling and production therefrom."

In April, Apache Energy announced an agreement to acquire Mariner Energy, but the transaction has not been completed.

Lt. Commander Chris O'Neil, chief of media relations at the Coast Guard, said preliminary reports indicate that the explosion occurred at a production platform, which had not actually been producing oil for about two months.

O'Neil said the Coast Guard had dispatched two helicopters from an air station south of Houston, three from another air station near New Orleans, and a propeller aircraft from Mobile, Ala., that acts as a flying command center.

O'Neil said he had seen no reports of spilled oil.

[the white rabbit]

This was done for BP so someone else will have to share the costs of the cleanup !!!!

[StackerKen]

There is no reports of oil or gas leaking....Is there?

I read the "platform" (not a rig) was not producing oil or gas

[the white rabbit]

From line 1 OP An offshore oil rig exploded Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico, injuring at least one worker, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

[wildcard]

Maybe we should just wait for God to fix it.

[StackerKen]

Maybe we should just wait for God to fix it.


Or

Maybe we should all freak out and claim millions will die because of this.?

[Joe King]

There is no reports of oil or gas leaking....Is there?

I read the "platform" (not a rig) was not producing oil or gas


Reuters is reporting "sheen".
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSWEN936620100902
Not very big though. A mile long by 100' wide. Although I suppose it'd be considered big if it were in your swiming pool or something.

[the white rabbit]

Apache spokesman Bob Dye said the platform is in shallow water. A company report said the well was drilled in the third quarter of 2008 in 340 feet of water.

Responding to an oil spill in shallow water is much easier than in deep water, where crews depend on remote-operated vehicles access equipment on the sea floor.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_rig_explosion

[StackerKen]

There is no reports of oil or gas leaking....Is there?

I read the "platform" (not a rig) was not producing oil or gas


Reuters is reporting "sheen".
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSWEN936620100902
Not very big though. A mile long by 100' wide. Although I suppose it'd be considered big if it were in your swiming pool or something.




Ohhh.... So now your gonna believe the MSM Joe?
::)

lol

[k-os]

I wonder how often these things explode.

Three in one year in the same area . . . is that unusual?

[StackerKen]

I can't find any talk about this at the Oil drum ???

http://www.theoildrum.com/

[Joe King]

I wonder how often these things explode.

Three in one year in the same area . . . is that unusual?
Just depends on how often things go wrong on the rigs or platforms.

It's kinda like plane crashes
Sometimes it's a good while between crashes and then other times there'll be multiples over a relatively short period.

[willie pete]

I guess it's not too bad, considering there are thousands of drilling rigs

[wildcard]

I'd just like to know if any of this crew were involved with the other rig.

[the white rabbit]

Oil sheen spreading from Gulf platform explosion
Coast Guard: a mile-long oil sheen spreading from site of burning Gulf platform off La. coast

.
Alan Sayre, Associated Press Writer, On Thursday September 2, 2010, 2:03 pm
NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) -- The Coast Guard is saying that a mile-long oil sheen is spreading from the site off an offshore petroleum platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana.

The site of the explosion is west of where BP's massive spill occurred.

The Coast Guard said no one was killed Thursday in the explosion. The blast was spotted by a commercial helicopter flying over the site.

All 13 people aboard the rig were found floating in the water in survival gear.

[wildcard]

Remember when Obongo sent the SWAT teams into the first one? And Sorcha Faal was saying North Korean mini-subs were torpedoing the rigs?

[PatColo]

Or

Maybe we should all freak out and claim millions will die because of this.?




Ken, Ken, Ken (http://www.goldeggs.nl/yes/)... 8)