Boats are seen spraying water on an oil and gas platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana., Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010. All 13 crew members were rescued.Gerald Herbert
An oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico caught fire Thursday morning, forcing its 13 crew members overboard and sending waves of anxiety along a coast that has just begun to recover from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
By early evening, the workers U.S. Coast Guard officials said no oil could be seen on the water near the platform, contradicting an earlier report.
In another year, the mishap may not have garnered much attention and could have been seen as one of the scores of fires and explosions that occur on offshore platforms in the Gulf every year. But coming so soon after the explosion on the BP rig in April, which killed 11 workers and set off the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history, it took on much larger significance.
Environmental groups quickly issued news releases, arguing that the fire proved the wisdom of the federal moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling (although the platform was not drilling, nor was it in deep water).
Officials from Mariner, echoed by others in the industry, took pains to note the differences between this fire and the explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon.
"There was no blowout, no explosion, no injuries, no spill," said Patrick Cassidy, director of investor relations for Mariner Energy, a relatively small oil and gas company in Houston with 330 employees and about $1-billion in annual revenues.
The fire broke out just after sunrise in the living quarters, as the crew was painting and cleaning the platform, Mr. Cassidy said. He said the company was investigating the cause but did not yet have any answers.
At 9:19 a.m., the Coast Guard received a call from a nearby platform saying that the Mariner Energy platform was engulfed in flames, Captain Peter Troedsson, the chief of staff for the Coast Guard's 8th District, said at an afternoon news conference.
The 13 workers who had been aboard were spotted from a helicopter, huddled together and floating in protective suits about a kilometre from the platform.
An offshore supply vessel called the Crystal Clear picked the crew members up and took them to the nearest platform. They were taken to land by helicopter later in the day.
The Coast Guard sent seven helicopters and six vessels to the scene. Earlier in the day, a response vessel had reported an oil sheen 1.6 kilometres long and 30 metres wide. But Capt. Troedsson said that Coast Guard responders at the site could not see any sheen.
Responders working for Mariner were studying the wells attached to the platform to see if there were any leaks, but for now they appeared to have been closed off, he said.
By midafternoon, Capt. Troedsson said, the fire aboard the platform had been put out.
Federal records show that there have been at least four accidents at that platform in the past decade. At least one of them led to a serious injury, and another led to a hospitalization.
The fire reinvigorated the debate about the federal moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling, which has been fiercely criticized by industry officials and residents of coastal states. The moratorium is currently scheduled to expire on Nov. 30.
On Thursday, engineers removed a temporary cap that stopped oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's blown-out well in mid-July. No more oil was expected to leak into the sea.
The cap was removed as a prelude to raising the massive piece of equipment underneath that failed to prevent the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
The Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, setting off a three-month leak that totalled 206 million gallons of oil.
New York Times News Service/AP