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September 2, 2010

Offshore platform explodes in Gulf of Mexico

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

MIAMI — An offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico exploded on Thursday, but the company that owned it said it mainly produced natural gas and reported no slick after an initial flyover.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported a sheen on the water about 100 feet wide and perhaps a mile long near the rig, which is west of BP’s blown-out well but operates in much shallower water than the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon.

Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau told The Miami Herald that the Coast Guard was still assessing the accident but did not believe there was a continuous flow from the rig, which sits about 90 miles off the coast of Louisiana. The sheen, she said, was “very light.”

“It looks like the tree has actually shut it in,” she said. A tree, also known as a Christmas tree in industry parlance, is a fitting that regulates the flow of gas and oil from wells.

The Coast Guard and the company that owns the platform, Houston-based Mariner Energy, said all 13 people aboard at the time of the morning blast had been rescued with no injuries.

The company, in a statement, confirmed the rig was the Vermilion 380 and said the cause of the blast was unknown. Mariner said last month the facility had averaged approximately 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and 1,400 barrels of oil and “condensate.’

According to a 2010 company financial statement, the rig has five wells and produced about 1.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas and liquid natural gas last year.

Company records and records from the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement — formerly known as the Minerals Management Service — show the platform was among hundreds of rigs damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008.

The company’s financial statement said it suspended drilling operations while conducting underwater structural repairs and reduced production until the facility was upgraded.

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which exploded in April, killing 11 workers and triggering the worst oil spill in U.S. history, was a floating drilling ship operating in 5,000 feet of water.

The Vermilion platform, some 80 miles south of Louisiana’s Vermilion Bay, is a permanent rig that federal records show operates in 340 feet of water.

Ben-Iesau said some rig workers were spotted in emergency flotation devices in the water around the rig. Seven Coast Guard helicopters, two airplanes and three cutters were dispatched to the scene from New Orleans, Houston and Mobile, Ala., Ben-Iesau said. She said authorities do not know whether oil was leaking from the site

 

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