This wasn't supposed to happen. Are you for drilling off the FLA coast?
Oil Rig Sinks in Gulf of Mexico
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and LIZ ROBBINS
Published: April 22, 2010
NEW ORLEANS, La. — The oil rig 50 miles off the southeast coast of Louisiana where an explosion occurred Tuesday night has collapsed into the Gulf of Mexico, a Coast Guard official said.
The rig had been taking on water from the firefighting efforts.
Petty Officer Tom Atkeson said on Thursday that the rig sank “sometime this morning.”
“We have multiple vessels on scene — all response vessels — and they are on scene there to help to mitigate the effects of the pollution,” Petty Officer Atkeson said in a telephone interview. He added that it was not clear how much oil had spilled into the ocean.
Nor was it immediately clear what, if any, environmental implications the rig’s collapse would have.
On Wednesday, as firefighters battled the fire on the rig, Rear Adm. Mary Landry, the commander of the Coast Guard’s Eighth District, estimated that 13,000 gallons of crude were pouring out of it every hour. At that time, o fficials said that the pollution was considered minimal, because most of the oil and gas was being burned up in the fire.
“But that does have the potential to change,” said David Rainey, vice president of BP, the oil company that leased the rig. Mr. Rainey is in charge of the company’s exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.
The rig, called the Deepwater Horizon, was positioned about 50 miles southeast of Venice, La., in water nearly 5,000 feet deep. Transocean, the Swiss-based company that owns the rig, said it had been under contract to BP since September 2007.
The Deepwater Horizon was a drilling rig, used to open wells in the sea floor; other types of rigs are built to produce oil from the wells once they are drilled. At the time of the explosion and fire, the Deepwater Horizon was in one of the final phases of opening a new well, construction of a cement casing to reinforce the well.
This can be a delicate procedure, because of the potential for an uncontrolled gas release from the drilled well that could lead to what is called a blowout. Mr. Rose said it was too early to say whether a blowout had occurred in this case, , but it was considered a possible cause.
The Deepwater Horizon could operate in water as deep as 8,000 feet, according to Transocean’s Web site. It was 396 feet long and 256 feet wide, and was built in 2001 by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea.
Workers from the rig who survived the explosion arrived at a hotel here early Thursday to reunite with their families as the search for 11 missing crew members continued in the Gulf of Mexico.
The survivors were taken by boat late Wednesday to Port Fourchon and then by bus to the Crowne Plaza hotel here near the New Orleans airport. All night long, family members stood in front of the hotel, anxiously waiting and desperately trying to connect with the workers by cellphone.
One survivor, who declined to give his name, said he was in bed on the rig when the explosion occurred.
“It caught me by surprise,” he said. “I’ve been in offshore 25 years, and I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Stanley Murray of Monterey, La., said his son Chad, an electrician, had made it off the rig just in time. A neighbor, Mr. Murray said, did not. “My son had just walked off the drill floor,” he said.
He said his son told him that the 11 missing workers could not have survived the explosion. “The 11 that’s missing, they won’t find them,” Mr. Murray said.
Coast Guard rescue teams searched the area by boat throughout the night, then resumed the air search, by plane and helicopter, on Thursday morning.
Seventeen crew workers were injured, three of them critically, and were taken to hospitals in the region, said Adrian Rose, an executive for Transocean. The injuries included burns, smoke inhalation and broken legs. At least eight people were treated and released from hospitals.
“We’ve had hurricanes and fires on the rigs, but I can’t remember that we ever had this type of explosion and definitely not on this type of rig,” said Billy Nungesser, the president of nearby Plaquemines Parish, where some oil rig workers live. “This is one of the largest deep-water, off-shore drilling rigs.”
Officials from the Minerals Management Service, a bureau of the Department of Interior, were assembling an investigation team and planned to interview the crew members — those who were unscathed or sustained only minor injuries, said Deputy Secretary David Hayes of the Interior Department.
Mr. Hayes said the Minerals Management Service had performed three inspections of the rig this year, including one in the past month, and found no cause for concern.
The explosion occurred without warning, Mr. Rose said.
“This would have happened very, very rapidly,” he said.
Most of the 126-person crew was able to leave the rig in lifeboats; some were picked up by other offshore vessels in the area. Most of the crew worked for Transocean; a small team of Transocean and BP executives had flown out to the rig before the explosion. Officials said about 40 of the people on the rig worked for other companies.
The rig’s lease was a lucrative one for the owner. “It’s been generating substantial day rates, in the neighborhood of $500,000 a day,” said Greg Panagos, a spokesman for Transocean.
Robert MacKenzie, managing director of the energy and natural resources group of FBR Capital Markets, said that in 11 years as an analyst, he could not recall another incident like this.
“There are rigs that burn down, but it’s usually during the drilling process, and not when the rig is close to finishing the well,” he said.
Campbell Robertson reported from New Orleans, and Liz Robbins from New York. |
