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Coast Guard: 4 injured, 2 missing in oil rig fire in Gulf
2theadvocate ^

Posted on 11/16/2012 9:17:39 AM PST by TigerClaws

VENICE (AP) — Coast Guard officials said an oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana, sending four people to hospitals Friday. Two were believed to be missing.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, did not immediately have information on the conditions of those taken to hospitals.

(Excerpt) Read more at theadvocate.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 11/16/2012 9:17:40 AM PST by TigerClaws
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To: TigerClaws

Obama will jump on this.


2 posted on 11/16/2012 9:21:49 AM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: TigerClaws

Oil rigs have a nasty way of self-immolating...
...under the Obama Administration.

;)


3 posted on 11/16/2012 9:35:17 AM PST by Noamie
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To: TigerClaws

A fire on an oil rig owned by a Houston-based energy company left two workers dead and two more missing off the coast of Louisiana, a company spokesman confirmed.

Four other workers were air-lifted to a hospital in Jefferson Parish, said Kirk Trascher, a spokesman for Black Elk Energy. Trascher said it was unknown if any oil spilled into the Gulf.

The U.S. Coast Guard in New Orleans also confirmed the fire early Friday morning, saying the rig was an oil-gas production platform.

Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts told WWL-TV the rig in question is a shallow water platform located in West Delta Block 32 in the Gulf of Mexico. The Coast Guard said the location is about 25 miles southeast of Grand Isle, Louisiana.

The guard activated a "command center" to investigate the incident, and two helicopter teams -- one from Mobile, Alabama and the other from New Orleans -- were called in to help with the search. Two small boat stations out of Grand Isle and Venice were also sent to the scene.

4 posted on 11/16/2012 10:02:37 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Noamie

The crises just keep on coming for this guy to “manage”.


5 posted on 11/16/2012 10:06:15 AM PST by Jane Long ("Miss me yet?" - Mitt)
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To: thackney

General Location:

http://maps.google.com/?ll=28.94544,-89.73805&spn=0.493913,0.681152&t=h&z=11


6 posted on 11/16/2012 10:08:33 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: TigerClaws

The story is wrong. This is a Production Platform, not what most commonly refer to as a “RIG” (drilling rig). Big difference.

Some of these production platforms off Louisiana are getting pretty old. Wondering of this Black Elk used to be Kerr-McGee, this sounds like their old area.


7 posted on 11/16/2012 10:18:50 AM PST by X-spurt (It is time for OFF YOUR FEET and on the gravy-train)
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To: X-spurt

Black Elk doesn’t know whether there were any injuries or deaths as a result of the fire, Leslie Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the Houston-based company, said in a phone interview. Hoffman couldn’t confirm whether it was on a platform or drilling rig. Black Elk is collecting information about the fire and should know more this afternoon, she said.

Black Elk holds stakes in more than 854 wells on 155 platforms off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas in the Gulf, in water depths ranging from less than 10 feet (3 meters) to more than 6,000 feet, according to its website.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-16/black-elk-energy-offshore-says-it-had-fire-in-gulf-of-mexico


8 posted on 11/16/2012 10:31:01 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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Two people are missing after an explosion and fire at a Gulf of Mexico platform owned by Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations LLC. An oil sheen was reported near the scene.

The explosion occurred just before 9 a.m. local time as work was being done on the platform about 20 miles (32 kilometers) off the coast of Grand Isle, Louisiana, Drake Foret, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman, said in a phone interview today. The fire was extinguished, Leslie Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the Houston-based Black Elk, said in a phone interview.

Twenty-six people worked on the platform, which was not producing oil or natural gas at the time. Eleven injured workers were flown to area hospitals, the Coast Guard said. It corrected an earlier statement that two were killed in the incident. Four platform workers are in critical condition, said Taslin Alfonzo, a spokeswoman for the West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, Louisiana.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-16/black-elk-energy-offshore-says-it-had-fire-in-gulf-of-mexico.html


9 posted on 11/16/2012 10:33:50 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: X-spurt

More Info, not drilling rig as you said:

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

The rig was not used for drilling, Thompson said, but was a production unit used to pump oil to the surface. It was not in production at the time of the fire.

“There was some construction on board and then the fire may have broken out as a cause of that construction.”

Thompson said although the rig was not in production, the coast guard had received a report that there was some kind of substance in the water nearby.

“We did have one report of a sheen which was a dark sheen, appearing to be oil, underneath the surface of the water, at a 200ft wide by 1.5 mile long sheen, but we haven’t confirmed exactly what that sheen is, whether or not it’s oil or some other substance. We’re assuming it’s oil but we haven’t confirmed that yet.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/16/black-elk-oil-rig-explosion


10 posted on 11/16/2012 10:44:18 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: TigerClaws

My oh my Just as Obama finishs the settlement with one rig another rig explodes. Strange isn’t it. Just thinking out loud.


11 posted on 11/16/2012 10:50:50 AM PST by Moonbug
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To: thackney

Hi Thack, the only time we ever had leaks or any dangerous situations on a production platform was when it was in maintenance or a crew was doing some installation. Of course jumping onto a bobbing Work Boat in high sea was always a thrill.

Is this Black Elk owner of the old Kerr-McGee production platforms?


12 posted on 11/16/2012 11:59:06 AM PST by X-spurt (It is time for OFF YOUR FEET and on the gravy-train)
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To: X-spurt

I thought Anadarko Petroleum took over Kerr0McGee in 2006???


13 posted on 11/16/2012 12:08:47 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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