Latest Gulf rig blast: No spill

2010-09-03 13:03

New Orleans - An oil platform that burned off the Louisiana coast on Thursday was the second such disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in less than five months.

This time, the Coast Guard said there was no leak, and no one was killed.

The Coast Guard initially reported that an oil sheen almost two kilometres long and 30 metres wide had begun to spread from the site, about 320km west of the source of BP's massive spill.

But hours later, Coast Guard Commander Cheri Ben-Iesau said crews were unable to find any spill.

The company that owns the platform, Houston-based Mariner Energy, did not know what caused the fire.

‘Not an explosion’

Workers who were pulled from the water told rescuers that there was a blast on board, but Mariner Energy's Patrick Cassidy said he considered what happened aboard the platform a fire, not an explosion.

"The platform is still intact and it was just a small portion of the platform that appears to be burned," he said.

Mariner officials said there were seven active production wells on the platform, and they were shut down shortly before the fire broke out.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said the company told him the fire began in 100 barrels of light oil condensate, but officials did not know yet what sparked the flames.

The Coast Guard said Mariner Energy initially reported the oil sheen. In a public statement, the company said an initial flyover did not show any oil.

Photos from the scene showed at least five ships floating near the platform. Three of them were shooting great plumes of water onto the machinery. Light smoke could be seen drifting across the deep blue waters of the Gulf.

Fire extinguished

By late afternoon, the fire on the platform was out.

The platform is in about 103 metres of water and about 160km south of Louisiana's Vermilion Bay.

Its location is considered shallow water, much less than the approximately 1 524 metres where BP's well spewed oil and gas for three months after the April rig explosion that killed 11 workers.

Responding to any oil spill in shallow water would be much easier than in deep water, where crews depend on remote-operated vehicles to access equipment on the sea floor.

A Homeland Security update obtained by The Associated Press said the platform was producing 222 000 litres of oil per day. The platform can store 15 900 litres of oil.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the administration has "response assets ready for deployment should we receive reports of pollution in the water".

Crew members rescued

All 13 of the platform's crew members were rescued from the water.

The captain of the boat that rescued the platform crew said his vessel was 40km away when it received a distress call on Thursday morning from the platform.

The Crystal Clear, 34 metre boat, was in the Gulf doing routine maintenance work on oil rigs and platforms.

When Captain Dan Shaw arrived at the scene of the blast, the workers were holding hands in the water, where they had been for two hours. They were thirsty and tired.

"We gave them soda and water, anything they wanted to drink," Shaw said. "They were just glad to be on board with us."

Crew members were being flown to a hospital in Houma. The Coast Guard said one person was injured, but the company said there were no injuries. All of them were released by early Thursday evening.

Jindal met with some of the survivors. He would not identify them except to say most were from Louisiana.

Dangers of offshore drilling

Environmental groups and some lawmakers said the incident showed the dangers of offshore drilling, and urged the Obama administration to extend a temporary ban on deepwater drilling to shallow water, where this platform was located.

"How many accidents are needed and how much environmental and economic damage must we suffer before we act to contain and control the source of the danger: Offshore drilling?" said Representative Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat.

Mike Gravitz, oceans advocate for Environment America, said President Barack Obama "should need no further wake-up call to permanently ban new drilling".

There are about 3 400 platforms operating in the Gulf, according to the American Petroleum Institute. Together they pump about a third of the America's domestic oil, forming the backbone of the country's petroleum industry.

On Friday, BP began the process of removing the cap and failed blowout preventer from its ruptured well, another step toward completion of a relief well that would seal the leak permanently.

The Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, setting off a three-month leak that totalled 780 million litres of oil.

- AP