Platform fire in Gulf
 

Anyone have anymore details? Just heard there are injuries and s few deaths. Praying it is not accurate info.

That's all I saw also. Not good.

2 missing, 2 dead, 4 taken to hospital.
West delta block 32; between grand isle and Venice.
About 30 ft of water.

http://www.wwl.com/pages/14807126.ph...entId=11845836



The U.S. Coast Guard in New Orleans says an offshore platform is burning in the Gulf of Mexico.

A spokesman tells WWL Radio the Coast Guard has activated a command center to investigate the incident, described as "an explosion and fire."

Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts tells WWL-TV the facility in question is a shallow water platform located in West Delta Block 32 in the Gulf of Mexico.

According to officials, the oil and gas platform is located 20 miles south of Grand Isle. The Coast Guard spokesman says Black Elk Energy is the "establishing company."

Coast Guard Captain Peter Gautier says 28 people were believed to be aboard the facility at the time. Gautier says the platform was not in active production.

Another Coast Guard spokesman says four workers have been taken from the platform by medivac and two workers are missing.

Article on USA Today is saying the rig was in West Cote Blanche Bay? I hope the best for all involved.

....

60-70' deep there i believe

Just relaying update I got on my phone; I never been n that area.

The platform was shut down doing Hot work, and report is the construction crew cut into a pipe with Gas and Oil

Is which why he blew up like a bomb.
Initial flames were over 1000feet high from Helicopter reports near by

Water is 60+80ft deep here is a map of where its located

Conflicting information....
 

West Cote Blanche Bay is not in the West Delta block.....which is it?

Prayers for those involved.

West Delta.

We are not allowed to have ANY liquid or pressurized hydrocarbons in any vessels and piping when doing construction.
The Operator should be there checking for pressure and hydrocarbons in everything. No one should be able to even break a line without getting the O.K. from the Operator.

Water Depth is 56'

GIS is the contractor doing the work.

This is true but, I nearly met my end on an Exxon inshore platform a few years back. It was said to have "sniffed" good but, when I grabbed the meter and did my own "sniff," the LEL was reading 300! Apparently, there was NG bleeding by the vessel. I was glad I sniffed it again and Exxon employees were glad to get me off their rig after the fit that I threw!!!!:pissed:

Looks that way, it melted the crane!

Prayers to the victims and their families. Unfortunately here comes another excuse for Obama to hit Louisiana with more drilling moratoriums, driving our economy further into the brink, and causing the loss of even more jobs.

That is the risk we take working out there....prayers sent to everyone

GIS is usually pretty good about doing the right thing.
I have worked with them since 2000.
They have strict rules, just like the companies they work for.
However, they do have some foreign folks that don't speak good english.
They may not have understood what was said, if it was one of them.

Ray we have the same problem on our facilities with immigrant workers. Makes it hard to communicate.

With the high unemployment there is in the US, I don't see why these companies hire foreign labor. Except to save $$$.

All about Saving money, they can hire these guys as cheap labor $8-10 hour and charge $40 hour for them .
Construction company is one of the most profitable in gulf
Cheap labor little overhead

a large percentage of those on unemployment don't want to do this type of labor.

It's a lot more than unemployment... And more time off than a 5/2 job.

Guys.


Being a safety consultant with over 20 yrs. experience.. I'm in 8,000 ' of Deep Blu as we speak... That 3' line had hydrocarbons in it... Why on earth would any one cut into a line with a CUTTING torch on a line that WOULD NOT blinded, double blocked, and bled..

Or flushed with water and then purged with Nitrogen... Common sense will tell you the line lead from or to some type of holdiing or storage tank whic will have some type of residue....

Hope some one wasn't in a hurry..

Black Elk probably don't conduct All work under a COW and permit to work system.. Like most majors do..

It's a dang shame. Yes your right about Immigrant workers .. But most understand a little english... This stuff GIVE EVERYONE A BLACK EYE....That works in the GoM. The sad thing is it's all preventable...

According to them....... Gringos no work.

GIS's best hands are Gringo's.
H&P Drilling just snatched up some of their best hands.
More pay, more days off.

They were Filipino's. These guys are good workers, but do not understand safety and do not understand English good enough to let them work alone, without an American foreman or a company operator directing them.
It's a shame. This will put another black eye on the oilfield and construction workers.
I feel for the families who will no longer have an income coming from this side of the world.