FIRE ON ENI/BP's PLATFORM OFFSHORE EGYPT!

"When I recall just how close I've come..."

Me, too, Bigun.
Me, too.

Thank heavens the crew is safe.

Thanks for the info.

"I had NOTHING to do with this."

Well, Tom, I can't say you did and I can't say you didn't.
What I can say is that my first thought when I saw these pictures was, "Damn! I didn't know Tom had gone back overseas!"

According to this, BP was a part owner.

Egyptian Natural Gas Platform Still On Fire After Seven Days

AFP: 8/16/2004

PORT SAID, Egypt, Aug 16 (AFP) - A fire on a natural gas platform in the Mediterranean Sea off the Egyptian coast was still blazing on Monday for a seventh day, an AFP correspondent reported.
But the blaze appeared to be burning itself out slowly as the flames were no longer as intense as they had been at the outset.
However, it could be several days before the fire at the rig at Temsah, 60 kilometres (35 miles) from Port Said, at the northern entrance to the Suez Canal, is finally extinguished.
Firefighters are trying to limit the amount of gas escaping from the field beneath the platform to starve the fire of fuel.
A third drilling vessel is on its way to the site from Italy to help with the operation and will be used to open angled tunnels to pour concrete into the working to cap the fire.
The initial blaze started last Tuesday with an explosion that destroyed a drilling rig before spreading to the platform. It was brought under control but for reasons that are under investigation erupted into a ball of flames jumping more than 20 metres (70 feet) in the air.
All 150 workers on the platform, run by Petrobel and owned by Italy's ENI, British Petroleum and Egypt's General Petroleum Corporation, were evacuated in time to prevent any casualties.

I'm sure that's the story.

I just received information that this platform was making a little over a hundred million cubic feet of gas per day.

Good on the Hands for getting off safely!

Thanks for the info, Dog.

This happened right after they cemented a string of casing, but I don't know which string.
They picked the BOPs up to set the slips, and the well came in.
I assume when the well started flowing on the backside, everyone evacuated (hauled booty) without trying to set the BOPs back down.
They wouldn't have had time to escape otherwise.

Thanks for the ping TC. I heard the news a few days ago but had not seen the pictures.

Glad everyone made it off, my brother-in-law has made several hitches over there but not sure on what rigs.

I too was told it was a BP platform though being partnered with AGIP would not be odd. Any idea who the operator was? IIRC the Adriatic is a Global/SF rig. Can we blame this on DG?

Yes, I know what caused it, but it's too simplistic to say, "human error".

Can we say stupid dumb a$$ company man in too big a hurry, on FR?

Hopefully they can rebuild from just under the surface of the water (i.e., not have to start from scratch on the sea floor.).

No this will be a total loss, but given the size of the jackup the water is not too deep.

LOL!!!!!

I am pinging the most probable responsible party.

I had one come in on the backside exactly like this one time after I had cemented 12,000' of 10 3/4" casing.
Because the well was deep, I had a large hydrostatic head, which gave us enough time to set the BOPs back down and four-bolt them before the gas hit.
We turned it through the blooie line and saved the rig.

Knowing BP's safety rules, however, that well could have flowed for three hours before the gas hit, and no one would have been allowed to set the stack back down.

"Can we say stupid dumb a$$ company man in too big a hurry, on FR?"

Good to see ya, HC!

Yeah, we could say that, but we'd probably be wrong.
Projects like this are run from the office, and he was probably doing exactly what he was told.

Since no one will bite. FNG=F***ing New Guy.

Not properly killing the well prior to cementing. Calculated high on the water reguired to push the plug for the first stage of a two stage job. Wrong measurements of the casing to be down the hole. New engineer experimenting, wrong weight of brine...lots of stuff.

Yeah, we could say that, but we'd probably be wrong. Projects like this are run from the office, and he was probably doing exactly what he was told.

Sort of why I wondered which company was the operator. If it was BP they would still be in a safety meeting, but AGIP and the Egyptians are another matter.

Good fire!

I have great admiration for oilfield workers. It's a dangerous job. Almost every one of them I talk to has a tale of a very close call. Some, too close.

LOL!

Yep! All of those could have caused it, and a FNG might have been the daddy.

In the Java Sea with ARCO we used to drop the slip/seal assembly through the BOPs to avoid any chance of this happening.

Well *cough* *clears throat* umm.. considering my brother and I set a ROCK on fire when we were little, I cannot deny involvement exactly.