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New accident on rig spills oil off Brazilian coast

By Peter Muello, Associated Press, 4/12/2001 15:41

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) A blowout at an offshore oil rig on Thursday forced the evacuation of workers and dumped more than 3,400 gallons of crude oil into the sea, near the site where another platform caught fire and sank last month, oil giant Petrobras and union leaders said.

No one was injured in the accident at the P-7 rig, located in the Bicudo oil field 75 miles off Brazil's southeastern coast, Petrobras said. A blowout is an uncontrolled gush of gas and oil. Production was immediately stopped.

Petrobras said that oil came from a pipe Thursday morning during tests of a well in about 700 feet of water. Most of the 143 workers aboard were evacuated to nearby platforms, but 37 members of emergency and firefighting teams remained on the rig.

''There was no explosion, and the structure of the rig was not compromised,'' said Irani Varela, head of the department of safety and the environment at Petrobras.

Varela described the spill as relatively small ''about half a tanker truck.'' He said two ships were at the site with 2,000 feet of floating oil-contention barriers to keep the spill in check.

However, the oil workers' union Sindipetro said the spill was six miles long. Technicians from the government's Environmental Protection Agency, Ibama, were heading to the site but did not immediately have an estimate of the size of the spill.

Petrobras said the P-7 rig was producing 15,000 barrels a day and had been in operation since the 1980s in the offshore Campos Basin, which accounts for most of the 1.5 million barrels of oil Brazil produces daily.

The latest accident comes barely three weeks after fire and explosions killed 11 workers aboard the world's biggest floating oil rig, which sank in nearly one mile of water in Campos Basin.

At least some of the 312,000 gallons of diesel fuel aboard leaked into the ocean, but winds and tides carried it away from the coast out to open sea. The rig also had 78,000 gallons of crude oil, most of it in hoses between the wells and the rig, but it was unclear whether that also had leaked.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

Answers

Apr 12, 2001 - 07:10 PM

Three Injured in New Mexico Oil Rig Fire The Associated Press

CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) - An oil rig blew apart and burst into flames Thursday, injuring three workers, one critically. The explosion involved a well operated by Pogo Producing of Texas, though officials said the crew did not work for the company. State Police Lt. Larry Rogers said the cause of the explosion was unknown.

"We're staying well away from this thing," he said. "We may have to wait out this thing to put it out."

The heat from the fire and the threat of explosions forced back fire department crews and rig workers. Tanks with 7,600 gallons of diesel and a smaller amount of motor oil were removed from the area.

Rogers said he did not know whether 300 pounds of a hazardous chemical used to harden dirt for oil-drilling remained too close.

Rig fires are generally snuffed out with dynamite explosions that suck oxygen away from flames. A Houston company that specializes in fighting oil rig fires has sent a crew to help.

Charles Williams, 24, one of the six-man crew, was in critical condition with burns over 40 percent of his body, said a spokeswoman for a Lubbock, Texas, hospital.

AP-ES-04-12-01 1910EDT © Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

Apr 13, 2001 - 12:12 PM

Well Rig Fire Continues to Burn The Associated Press

CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) - An oil rig that erupted in flames, critically injuring three workers, burned for a second day Friday and could spew fire for several more hours, authorities said. The fire, which followed an explosion in the rig Thursday, probably won't be snuffed out until Saturday, state police said.

"The intensity of heat this thing is producing is something you want to stay well away from. We may have to wait out this thing to put it out," police Lt. Larry Rogers said.

Three drillers suffered burns when the fire broke out. There was no immediate word on the cause, but police Maj. Faron Segotta said the workers may have encountered a pocket of gas. The well's operator, Pogo Producing, also was investigating.

Drilling was at the 8,385-foot level at the time of the blast.

Rig fires are generally snuffed out with dynamite explosions that suck oxygen away from flames. A Houston company that specializes in fighting oil rig fires sent a crew to help.

But before the explosives can put out the fire, "they have to tear down the rig, or what they call the platform, which is a 108-foot tower, still burning," Segotta said. "Then they go in and cap it off."

The three workers remained in critical condition Friday, suffering from burns, said Dave Johnson, spokesman for a hospital in Lubbock, Texas.

Segotta identified them as Charles Williams, 24, Curry Powell, 28, and Dennie Bailey, 40.

A Pogo official said the injured men did not work for the company.

AP-ES-04-13-01 1212EDT © Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001