Bartleby
09-02-2010, 12:03 PM
Blast on gulf oil rig injures 1 worker
By William Branigin and Debbi Wilgoren
Thursday, September 2, 2010; 12:25 PM
An offshore oil rig exploded Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico, injuring at least one worker, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
All 13 people on board the Vermilion Oil Rig 380 have been accounted for, and the one who was injured is being transported to a hospital, Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough said.
The others were in "immersion suits" in the water awaiting rescue, he said.
The rig is believed to be on fire, Colclough told CNN in a live telephone interview. He said it has not yet been determined whether there is a leak as a result of the explosion, but he noted reports that "the rig was not actively producing" any oil or gas.
Multiple Coast Guard, Navy and civilian vessels are en route to the site of the explosion west of the location of the April 20 blast on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that caused a massive oil spill.
Colclough said eight Coast Guard helicopters and at least three cutters were among the craft headed to the site.
The latest blast was reported by a commercial helicopter company about 10:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, the Coast Guard said.
The explosion took place even as senior BP officials were in Washington briefing Michael Bromwich, the head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, on lessons learned in the protracted effort to plug the blown-out Macondo well drilled by BP. That blowout caused an explosion that killed 11 people on the Deepwater Horizon rig, leading to the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR2010090202733.html?hpid=topnews
By William Branigin and Debbi Wilgoren
Thursday, September 2, 2010; 12:25 PM
An offshore oil rig exploded Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico, injuring at least one worker, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
All 13 people on board the Vermilion Oil Rig 380 have been accounted for, and the one who was injured is being transported to a hospital, Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough said.
The others were in "immersion suits" in the water awaiting rescue, he said.
The rig is believed to be on fire, Colclough told CNN in a live telephone interview. He said it has not yet been determined whether there is a leak as a result of the explosion, but he noted reports that "the rig was not actively producing" any oil or gas.
Multiple Coast Guard, Navy and civilian vessels are en route to the site of the explosion west of the location of the April 20 blast on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that caused a massive oil spill.
Colclough said eight Coast Guard helicopters and at least three cutters were among the craft headed to the site.
The latest blast was reported by a commercial helicopter company about 10:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, the Coast Guard said.
The explosion took place even as senior BP officials were in Washington briefing Michael Bromwich, the head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, on lessons learned in the protracted effort to plug the blown-out Macondo well drilled by BP. That blowout caused an explosion that killed 11 people on the Deepwater Horizon rig, leading to the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR2010090202733.html?hpid=topnews