Salon.com > Alan Sayre

Oil sheen spreading from new Gulf platform explosion

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:15:00 +0000

A mile-long oil sheen spread Thursday from an offshore petroleum platform burning in the Gulf of Mexico off Lousiana, west of the site of BP's massive spill.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Coklough said the sheen, about 100 feet wide, was spotted near the platform owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy Inc.

He said Mariner had deployed three firefighting vessels to the site and one already was in place fighting the blaze.

The Coast Guard says no one was killed in the explosion and fire, which was reported by a commercial helicopter flying over the site around 9 a.m. CDT. All 13 people aboard the rig were rescued as they floated in the nearby water in survival outfits called gumby suits.

The platform is in about 340 feet of water and about 100 miles south of Vermilion Bay on the central Louisiana coast. It's location is considered shallow water, much less than the approximately 5,000 feet where BP's well spewed oil and gas for three months after an April rig explosion.

All 13 people aboard the rig were found floating in the water, sticking close together, Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer John Edwards said.

Crews may set fire to burn off leaked Gulf oil

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:52:00 +0000

Crews may set fires to burn off oil being spewed into the Gulf of Mexico by a blown-out well, the Coast Guard said Tuesday.

Pools of oil far offshore would be trapped in special containment booms and set aflame as soon as Wednesday, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said.

Efforts so far have failed to shut off the flow of oil nearly 5,000 feet below where the rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank last week. Robot subs are still working on it.

"If we don't secure this well, this could be one of the most significant oil spills in U.S. history," Landry said.

A similar burn off the coast of Newfoundland in 1993 eliminated 50 to 99 percent of captured oil. Burning the oil could create some air pollution, and the effect on any marine life is unclear.

The oil is now about 20 miles off the coast of Venice, La., the closest it's been to land. But it's still not expected to reach the coast before Friday, if at all.

BP, which was leasing the Deepwater Horizon, said it will begin drilling by Thursday as part of a $100 million effort to take the pressure off the well, which is spewing 42,000 gallons of crude oil a day.