An offshore oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, west of the site of the April blast that caused the massive oil spill.
A commercial helicopter company reported the blast around 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats were en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.
The Coast Guard said initial reports indicated all 13 crew members from the rig were in the water. One was injured, but there were no deaths.
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« If reason and science won't work, let's tug the heartstrings | Main | Hydrogen Bonding Video »
Another Gulf Oil Rig Has Exploded
Category: drill baby drill
Posted on: September 2, 2010 12:03 PM, by Greg Laden
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Comments
are you fucking kidding me?
Posted by: Jared | September 2, 2010 12:21 PM
Washington Post:
"An offshore oil rig exploded Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico, injuring at least one worker, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
All 13 people on board the Vermilion Oil Rig 380 have been accounted for, and the one who was injured is being transported to a hospital, Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough said.
The rig is believed to be on fire, Colclough told CNN in a live telephone interview. He said it has not yet been determined whether there is a leak as a result of the explosion.
Multiple Coast Guard, Navy and civilian vessels are en route to the site of the explosion west of the location of the April 20 blast on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that caused a massive oil spill.
The latest blast was reported by a commercial helicopter company about 10:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, the Coast Guard said.
Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats are en route to the site about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast, the Associated Press reported. "
Posted by: Patricia | September 2, 2010 12:26 PM
Reportedly the well was inactive. It may have been one of the non-producing wells that are supposed to be sealed but which usually are not. They may have been trying to seal it when it broke.
It could be a big spill in that case.
Posted by: daedalus2u | September 2, 2010 12:32 PM
Apparently the fire's pretty much under control now. The wells were all sealed, so there's no leakage. There's some reports of an oil 'film', which doesn't sound good, but it's probably whatever's in the on-rig tanks.
Posted by: minionator | September 2, 2010 3:36 PM
Speaking of expolosions and bad things happening, why are the liberals at science blobs ignoring the far left radical global warming fanatic that strapped bombs to himself and held hostages at the Discovery Channel building? Al Gore should be proud. He converted a normal person into a eco-terrorist. Sadly, there are thousands more like him all over the place. What I do not understand is why he had handguns. I though people that far left wanted handguns banned. Oh well. I guess they just want to ban them for the normal eople while they terrorize America. I wonder if the SWAT teamed shot the little punk with an environemntally friendly lead free bullet or just said screw it and shot him full of global warming causing lead. It would be funny to find out they used lead on him. Hmm. Makes me wonder. I wonder if his handguns (which he probably protested being legal for everyone else) had lead free bullets? Probably not. Just another left wing hippycrit eco-terrorist. Speaking of eco-terrorism, I hear Europe's light bulb nazis are in full force this week.
Posted by: Jerry | September 2, 2010 6:49 PM
Shorter Jerry, the creationist and all-around right-wing nutcase @5:
OMG!! Teh AlGore haz cauzed dizasters!!!!! I haz pruf!!!!
The real world in response:
Please start taking your meds again...
Posted by: NJ | September 2, 2010 7:27 PM
From the NPR article Greg linked, it was a producing platform, though it's not clear if it was operating at the time of the explosion. The impression I get is not.
In contrast to the BP disaster, this sounds almost like a success story. Don't get me wrong; not blowing up would have been better, but it sounds like safety procedures were followed, and to great effect. The only oil spilled, I'm guessing, is whatever was in the platforms storage and possibly the last segment of pipe before the pump.
Posted by: itzac | September 2, 2010 7:28 PM
It's great that nobody was killed. There a couple of mistakes the media made on the story; #1 It is a production platform (rig connotes a drill) #2 It is a gas well, so very little oil is brought up to the surface. This is not to say some gas wells don't produce a little petroleum. Sorry. I grew up in Dallas and was immersed in oil and gas from an early age.
The extraction industries didn't get the reputation for rape and run for no reason. The Feds and States need to keep their second biggest boot on the necks of these companies. The first biggest boot belongs to the necks of the Financial "Industry".
Posted by: Bert Chadick | September 3, 2010 1:43 AM