Thursday, September 2, 2010

OH NOOOO! ANOTHER WELL EXPLODES IN THE GULF


From NOLA.com:

The Coast Guard is responding to a report of a rig explosion and fire "and people in the water'' in the Gulf of Mexico south of Vermilion Bay, authorities said.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said the rig is around 90 miles south of Vermilion Bay and that a helicopter earlier today reported that it was in fire "and that there was smoke and there were people in the water.''

In an interview with CNN, Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough said there were 13 people on the rig and that all were accounted for. Twelve of the workers are in immersion suits and one is injured, he said.

Immersion suits protect the wearer from hypothermia.
All 13 people abandoned the rig after the explosion and are accounted for, but have not yet been rescued from the Gulf, the Coast Guard said.

Colclough said the rig was not actively producing at the time of the incident, but is still on fire. The explosion was reported around 9:30 this morning.
....

She said the rig, Vermilion Oil Rig 380, is owned by Mariner Energy, but that details were scarce.

Vermilion Oil Rig 360 is a gas and oil rig in 450 feet of water in South Timbalier Block 316, according to company records.

Vermillion 380 is a fixed, manned production platform. It's not a well being drilled for oil, like BP's Macondo well and it's not a floating rig like the Deepwater Horizon.

Offshore and onshore drilling for oil will never be safe.

4 comments:

  1. Oh, no, you MUST be joking.

    Prayers for the Gulf (again).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, no, you MUST be joking.

    Cathy, that's exactly what I said to Grandpère when he told me the news. Let's pray that the results will not be as disastrous as with the Horizon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, yes to "Cloths of Heaven"!

    Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
    Enwrought with golden and silver light,
    The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
    Of night and light and the half light,
    I would spread the cloths under your feet:
    But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
    I have spread my dreams under your feet;
    Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.


    Achingly beautiful.

    ReplyDelete

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