Rig Explosion Shows Risks in Key Oil FrontieR

Rig Explosion Shows Risks in Key Oil Frontier

oil rig explosion

Overnight two Coast Guard cutters continued the search for the 11 missing, eerily illuminated by the massive fireball on the platform that has yet to be extinguished. The Coast Guard said aircraft were scheduled to resume the search at first light. Already nearly 2,000 square miles have been scoured, the Coast Guard said.

"My heart goes out to them, it really does," said Carol Moss, the wife of one survivor. "I couldn't imagine ... I just hope and pray that they find them."


Firefighting vessels are struggling to contain the fire on top of he rig as plumes of smoke are reportedly reaching 10,000 feet in the air.

"The best way to describe it is a big mushroom cloud, almost like a bomb went off," Coast Guard petty officer Blair Doten said.

The Coast Guard is working with BP, with which the rig is under contract, to shut down the fire's fuel source: the rig's well that can produce 13,000 gallons of raw crude oil an hour.

"Until then, we continue firefighting efforts with the vessels that are on scene," Kerner said, noting that four vessels are currently dousing the rig with water.

Just last September, the operator of the semisubmersible rig known as the Deepwater Horizon announced it had succeeded in drilling the deepest oil well in history. Operating in 4,130 feet (1,260 meters) of water, the rig had drilled six miles (10 km) beneath the sea floor to reveal a major petroleum find, the Tiber Prospect, for the giant oil company BP.

Now, authorities are trying to learn what went wrong on the platform, where an explosion left at least three people critically injured and 11 more missing as of Thursday. Rig operator Transocean Ltd. said 115 workers were evacuated safely, but the fire burned long after the blast, apparently fed by the flow of oil or gas hydrocarbons. The company said the investigation of the incident 41 miles (66 km) off the shore of Louisiana could take weeks.

The mishap was a reminder of the dangers inherent in offshore oil operations at a time when the fields of crude deep under the sea are seen as the industry’s most important frontier—one where companies like Transocean and BP have aimed to push the boundaries of exploration.

The Past and Future of Offshore Drilling

U.S. reliance on oil from the Gulf of Mexico has grown steadily since the early 1980s, when the basin contributed just 8 percent of the nation’s oil production. By 2008, the most recent year for which data is available, the Gulf was pumping out 1.15 million barrels a day, 23 percent of the oil produced in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In contrast, Alaska’s North Slope, declining in output in recent years, represented just 14 percent of U.S. production in 2008.

President Obama affirmed last month that offshore resources would be an important part of his administration’s energy policy. The first environmental hearings on the proposal are under way this week, focused on the impact of new seismic exploration off the Atlantic Coast.

Oil companies also are vying for leadership in opening up vast underwater reserves around the world, such as off the coasts of Angola and Brazil. Transocean says it is the largest offshore drilling contractor, and its fleet catalog says it holds 19 of the last 23 world records for drilling in deep water.

BP, which recently obtained a stake in offshore Brazil, has more acreage than any other producer in the Gulf of Mexico, and sought to solidify this position with the announcement of its Tiber Prospect discovery last fall.

At the time of the big BP find, experts cautioned it could take years to begin extracting oil from Tiber, and the project would make sense only if global crude prices were high, because of the difficulty of extraction from so deep underwater.

Dangerous Work

Indeed, the work can be hazardous. There have been 509 fires recorded on oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico since 2006—including nine characterized as “major,” killing two people and seriously injuring 12, reported the Houston Chronicle in an analysis of the accident records of the U.S. Minerals Management Service. The Chronicle said there were at least 35 fatal platform accidents in the Gulf during that period, including drowning and diving incidents, helicopter crashes, and drilling equipment mishaps.

Ken Medlock, a fellow in energy studies at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and adjunct assistant professor of economics at Rice University, said he didn’t think the fire would have much effect on the continuing oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico. “It shouldn’t mean anything for those in production,” he said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports there are nearly 4,000 active oil and gas platforms operating in U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is calling for a congressional investigation of safety at offshore oil rigs after an explosion sank a platform off the Louisiana coast.

Nelson, a Democrat, said late Thursday he asked the U.S. Interior Department to investigate and provide a comprehensive report on all U.S. drilling accidents over at least the last decade. Nelson also wants a congressional probe by the Senate Commerce Committee he serves on.

Nelson has led opposition to offshore drilling.

Eleven workers are still missing after the explosion Tuesday. Officials are trying to clean up the oil that spilled after the blast and prevent any threat to the coast's ecosystem.

Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana has also called for an investigation into what caused the explosion.



NEW ORLEANS, April 26 (UPI) -- A 600-square-mile slick developed near the Gulf of Mexico site of a sunken oil rig and workers tried to cap the well spouting 42,000 gallons of oil a day.

A week after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig caught fire in an explosion and five days after the platform sank, officials expressed a fear of severe pollution problems should the well not be brought under control soon.

Robot submarines have been dispatched to the floor of the Gulf of Mexico to control the flow of oil from the well. Estimates are that 1,000 barrels of oil are escaping the well each day.

Officials said they should know Tuesday whether the plan worked. If it doesn't it would be a considerable amount of time before a dome could be fashioned over the well or a second well drilled to divert oil from the existing well.

BP, the British oil company operating the well, sent a fleet of more than two dozen vessels to work on the problem of oil creating a film on the ocean surface. Officials said they hoped weather conditions continued to keep the oil from moving toward land. The affected area was said to cover 600 square miles.

An explosion on the rig April 20 led to the sinking of the platform.