Oil Rig Explodes in Gulf: Why Did Second Oil Rig Blow Up?

Homeland Security says oil rig wasn't producing oil or gas

BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Explosion, April 20, 2010

:Update: Controversy over whether Vermilion oil rig was in production.

According to the AP another oil rig explosion has occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil platform, the Vermilion oil rig 380 owned by Mariner Energy of Houston, is located 80 miles off the Louisiana coast, west of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig drilling disaster. Thirteen workers on the Mariner rig accounted for with one injury, some of the workers in flotation devices. The Coast Guard has dispatched helicopters, airplanes, and cutters to rescue the workers. Most interesting to note in the AP report: The Department of Homeland Security says the latest rig (platform) to explode is located in about “2500 ft’ of water, DHS says, at the time of the explosion the rig wasn’t producing oil or gas. Which leads to why did the Mariner Energy oil rig explode?” Are there any similarities to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil drilling disaster?

According to USA Today the new oil rig explosion in the Gulf, the Vermillion 380, is a “fixed, manned production platform” not involved in drilling.

Update at 12:14 p.m. ET: The New Orleans Tiems-Picayune describes the facility, called Vermillion 380, as a “fixed, manned production platform.” The newspaper says the platform is not involved in drilling and, unlike the ill-fated BP rig, is not a floating rig, but rather is a fixed platform.

Update at 12:11 p.m. ET: The Coast Guard tells MSNBC that the facility is not a rig, but is a platform that does not do any drilling.

The BP Deepwater Horizon was a drilling rig or platform. The Mariner Energy rig, a fixed platform, according to Homeland Security, the rig “wasn’t producing any oil or gas”. According to the Coast Guard, the latest “oil rig” explosion was a platform (not a rig) that “doesn’t do any drilling”.

Popular Mechanics filed a report two days after the Deepwater Horizon exploded:

The Deepwater Horizon, a state-of-the-art, dynamically positioned floating semi-submersible drilling platform that costs BP $502,000 a day to run, was close to finishing drilling a series of exploratory wells in 5000 feet of water and was about to be moved. A report obtained from a drilling industry analyst who asked to remain anonymous due to a pending investigation, shows that the rig workers had recently set and cemented a casing and were in the process of displacing the riser (a pipe that encloses the drill string from the platform to the sea bottom) with seawater and setting a surface plug when the well blew out.

The report reads, “the incident appears as if it was either the product of gas migration through the cement sheath as it was setting or that the act of displacing the riser to seawater reduced the hydrostatic head enough that it caused the well to start flowing though cement that was not yet hard. With casing in the ground, these two possible explanations seem by far the most likely, although its impossible at this point not to rule out some other cause or contributing factor such as a blowout preventer or a casing integrity issue.”

According to Popular Mechanics, BP was involved in deep water drilling, depths from “5000 to 10,000 ft and up to another 30,000 feet underground—which is riskier and far more complex than drilling in shallow water or on land.” According to Homeland Security, the Mariner platform, located in “2500 ft” of water.

The Post and Courier supplied more info on the second oil rig explodes in the Gulf:

Melissa Schwartz, spokeswoman for Bureau of Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement, said the platform was authorized to produce oil and gas at this water depth but had not been recently in active production.

“There were ongoing maintenance activities underway,” she said, adding it was in approximately 340 feet of water.

The latest news on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil-drilling platform disaster, who’s in charge of putting on the permanent seal, the Obama commission week long hearings held in Houston last week and the three BP engineers who refused to testify:

On August 31, the AP reported Risks remain with Gulf well cap coming off. According to the AP, BP is planning to remove the temporary cap, today or tomorrow depending on how rough the Gulf waters are, using a crane to raise the “massive, failed piece of equipment” for government inspectors, then permanently seal the cap.

AP:

Engineers and the government were not expecting crude to break out again when the cap is lifted, but the government wasn’t offering any guarantees and oil collection vessels were set to be on standby on the surface just in case.

One can only wonder why Obama administration government officials have 1) Decided BP is the company to permanently cap the well, and 2) Obama government investigators standing by with their “fingers crossed” hoping there won’t be any “leaks”? Especially in light of last week’s Obama commission investigation hearings held in Houston. Hearings which three BP engineers refused to testify?

The Houston Chronicle reported on last week’s Obama commission hearings held in Houston, a joint investigative panel of the Coast Guard and the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. A panel put together by the Obama administration to investigate the cause of the BP oil spill disaster, the biggest oil spill disaster in history.

According to the Chronicle, during the hearings three BP engineers refused to testify. The hearings are set to resume October 4, in either Houston or New Orleans while investigators wait for BP to raise the critical piece of evidence. This week BP is attempting to put a permanent cap on the well after removing the temporary cap and raising the critical piece of evidence, the massive piece of equipment government officials claim may or may not solve the “mystery” of the BP oil drilling rig disaster.

The site Climate Progress discovered the day before the latest oil rig explosion in the Gulf, “thousands” of oil rig workers, including Mariner oil rig 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”.

Oil Rig Explosion Doomsday Sign For Believers of Giant Methane Bubble Explosion and Gulf of Mexico Impending Doom?

Oil Rig Explosion Controversy over Whether Vermilion Oil Rig 380 Was in Production

Back to DBKP Front Page.

Your Ad Here

Tags: BP, Gulf, Homeland Security, Marine Energy, methane gas bubble, oil rigs