Jesus, I feel like someone just punched me in the gut.
Via AP:
Gulf oil rig explodes off US coast GRAND ISLE, Louisiana (AP) — An offshore oil rig has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, west of the site of the April blast that caused the massive oil spill. Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel says the blast was reported by a commercial helicopter company about 9:30 a.m. CDT (1430 GMT) Thursday. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats are en route to the site, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast. Ranel says it hasn't been determined whether the structure is a production platform or a drilling rig or whether workers were aboard. Ranel says smoke was reported but it is unclear whether the rig is still burning.
I will update as more info comes in.
Map of site of explosion:
U.S. Coast Guard aerial shot of burning platform:
Update: Via MSNBC: All 13 people accounted for with 1 injury. No info on extent of injuries suffered. According to Coast Guard, all 13 workers were wearing protective gear. Five helicopters, two airplanes and four boats are en route from Coast Guard stations in New Orleans and Houston are en route to rescue the workers.
Update 2: From the Times-Picayune:
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 one is injured, he said.
Immersion suits protect the wearer from hypothermia.
Colclough said the rig was not actively producing at the time of the incident.
The injured will be taken Terrebone General Medical Center in Houma.
http://www.nola.com/...
From CNN: Rig owned by Mariner Energy. It's a platform, not a floating vessel. Not in deep water. There was an explosion. The rig is still on fire. No idea if oil is leaking. Investigation underway.
Interesting tidbit on Mariner Energy:
Robbins Umeda LLP Announces an Investigation of the Acquisition of Mariner Energy, Inc. by Apache Corporation
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Robbins Umeda LLP has commenced an investigation into possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of state law by members of the Board of Directors of Mariner Energy, Inc. ("Mariner Energy") (NYSE: ME) in connection with their actions in causing Mariner Energy to enter into a merger agreement with Apache Corporation ("Apache") (NYSE: APA) (NASDAQ: APA). If the transaction is completed, Mariner Energy shareholders will receive $7.80 in cash and 0.17043 of a share of Apache common stock for each share of Mariner Energy they own, subject to an election feature and proration. The companies expect the merger to close in the third quarter of 2010.
Robbins Umeda LLP's investigation concerns whether Mariner Energy's Board of Directors undertook a fair process to obtain fair consideration for all shareholders of Mariner Energy.
More info on the investigation here: http://www.prlog.org/...
Did some research and came up with some data from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE): From January to June of this year alone, Mariner Energy and Apache have a combined $755,000 worth of fines for 4 violations, with Apache racking up the bulk of that (most likely because they're a much larger outfit than Mariner). Their history is not good: http://www.boemre.gov/...
Update 3: Robert Gibbs making comments right now: This is a production platform about 100 miles off the coast. Depth of water about 340 ft., so not a deepwater facility. Well is not in active production. Coast Guard responded to a fire aboard the rig. 13 people were on the platform, 1 injured. They're accounted for and injured is on the way to a hospital. Response assets are ready for deployment should they receive reports of pollutants in the water.
Reporter asked him if the President is convinced that the inspection of rigs in the Gulf is going fast enough. He says he doesn't have an update, but he'll get some information. He doesn't know if the President has been notified. John Brennan is currently in a meeting with the President and he knows about it, but doesn't know if he informed the President of the situation.
***************************************************************************************
I think it timely to remind ourselves of just how many oil platforms are in the Gulf of Mexico: over 3,858. Big Oil is sucking the life out of the Gulf, yet the economy and the way of life is so entangled with this dirty and dangerous industry, that I don't see them untangling themselves any time soon - no matter how many rigs explode, no matter how many people die, no matter how many barrels of oil are spilled into the water and no matter how much of our natural resources are destroyed. It's depressing.
Gulf of Mexico Oil Rigs: 1942-2005
Update 5: All of this comes right on the heels of a federal judge overturning the Govt's moratorium a second time!
WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- A motion filed by the U.S. federal government to dismiss a lawsuit challenging a moratorium on deep-water drilling was overturned, a judge ruled.
[snip]
Salazar issued a second moratorium in July after U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman agreed with the offshore drilling industry. Feldman struck down the second moratorium by saying it was "substantially the same as the first one..."
[snip]
The Journal said the federal government wanted to keep the moratorium in place through November but might reconsider when it reviews industry practices.
http://www.upi.com/...
UPDATE 6: According to CNN, this was a NATURAL GAS platform, not an oil rig. Additionally, a Paramedic on a neighboring rig said that he confirmed via helicopter radio chatter that NO ONE WAS INJURED. Obviously, that's a major conflict from what's been reported thus far, so I'll try to confirm as more information becomes available.
1:06 p.m. EDT: Corroboration from Mariner spokesperson, Patrick Cassidy, via CNN: @ approximate 10:15 EDT this morning, a fire broke out on the Vemillion, block 380 Oil and Gas production platform. There were no drilling operations at the facility. No blowout wells. Appears everything is contained. Initial flyover reported no hydrocarbons leaking. The 13 people evacuated and were picked up by a life raft and are on their way to facilities on shore. NO INJURIES. All 13 people are safe.
Irony of ironies: turns out that just yesterday Mariner and Apache employees were demonstrating against the Administration's moratorium (h/t to Jed Lewison):
Just yesterday, however, the Financial Times reported that employees from Apache and Mariner, along with thousands of oil industry workers, rallied in Houston to protest the Obama administration’s offshore drilling moratorium that was designed as a safety precaution after BP’s disastrous Gulf oil spill.
A Mariner Energy employee chastised the Obama administration for its drilling moratorium, which would not have affected the rig that exploded today:
Companies ranging from Chevron to Apache bussed in up to 5,000 employees to the Houston convention centre to underline to Washington the industry’s contribution to the country. [...]
“I have been in the oil and gas industry for 40 years, and this administration is trying to break us,” said Barbara Dianne Hagood, senior landman for Mariner Energy, a small company. “The moratorium they imposed is going to be a financial disaster for the gulf coast, gulf coast employees and gulf coast residents.”
Ain't that some shit? Cue the conspiracy theorists. <sigh>
MAJOR UPDATE Not good:
The Coast Guard is reporting that a mile-long oil sheen is spreading from the site of today's oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Associated Press.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/...
And contrary to all reports thus far, the AP (via HuffPo) is now reporting that the rig WAS INDEED IN PRODUCTION (H/T to Veritas):
The platform is a fixed petroleum platform that was in production at the time of the fire, according to a homeland security operational update obtained by The Associated Press.
The update said the platform was producing about 58,800 gallons of oil and 900,000 cubic feet of gas per day. The platform can store 4,200 gallons of oil.
Reuters has done a nice job of chronicling the fossil fuel disasters we've had so far this year:
Factbox: U.S. Energy Disasters in 2010
[snip]
Sept 2 - An offshore production rig operated by Mariner Energy in the Gulf of Mexico had a fire, forcing the immediate evacuation of 13 personnel and a major rescue response -- currently in progress...
July 26 - The Enbridge 6B crude pipeline, capacity 190,000 barrels per day, ruptured in Michigan and spilled more than 19,000 barrels into local waterways in one of the largest U.S. pipeline disasters ever...
June 7 - A natural gas pipeline explosion on a line owned by Enterprise Product Partners in North Texas killed one person...
June 7 - An explosion and resulting fireball burned seven members of a crew drilling for natural gas at an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia, the second big fire at an energy project in the region in less than a week.
June 4 - Workers capped a natural gas well in central Pennsylvania after it ruptured during drilling, spewing gas and drilling fluid 75 feet in the air...
April 20 - Explosion and fire on Transocean Ltd's drilling rig Deepwater Horizon licensed to BP; 11 workers were killed on the rig stationed in deep waters south of Louisiana. The runaway oil well spilled up to 4.9 million barrels before it could be capped in mid-July, according to government estimates, making it the worst offshore oil spill in history.
April 5 - An explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in Montcoal, West Virginia, killed 29 miners in the deadliest U.S. mining disaster since 1972. The mine owned by Massey Energy has had a worse-than-average injury rate over the last 10 years, with three fatalities since 1998.
April 2 - Four workers died in a blaze at Tesoro Corp's refinery in Anacortes, Washington, in the worst U.S. refining disaster since 2005...
March 2 - A fire on an asphalt tank under construction killed two workers at Holly Corp's Navajo refinery in Artesia, New Mexico.
Yet we've still learned nothing.
Update 7: Mariner has confirmed that the rig was in production:
Early reports that the Mariner platform was not producing oil and gas at the time of the explosion appear to be false. According to a statement released by the company today, the rig was producing a daily average of 1,400 barrels of oil per day and 9 million cubic feet of natural gas.
There's still conflicting report about injuries. Now the reports are that one person did sustain minor injuries, and all 13 workers were taken to hospital to be checked out.
Acadiana, Louisiana, TV station KLYF has done a good job aggregating the information about the incident and has a couple of videos up (I'm unable to embed them here), including Bobby Jindal's press conference: http://www.klfy.com/...
Fire seems to be under control now:
Late update: Coast Guard is now saying there's NO sheen:
updated less than 1 minute ago
GRAND ISLE, La. — The Coast Guard is backing off its earlier report that an oil sheen about a mile long was spreading following a platform explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
Coast Guard Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau said Thursday afternoon that crews was unable to confirm the oil sheen.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...