3rd UPDATE: Mariner Oil/Gas Platform Catches Fire In US Gulf
September 02 2010 - 4:34PM
Dow Jones News
An offshore platform owned by Mariner Energy Inc. (ME) caught
fire about 100 miles south of Louisiana's Vermilion Bay on Thursday
morning, with a light oily sheen around the platform visible from
the air, according to the Coast Guard.
Thirteen workers were stranded in the water but were rescued and
transferred to another platform, the Coast Guard said in a press
release. One of the 13 workers was injured, said Coast Guard Office
Petty Officer Casey Ranel. However, Mariner said in a press release
that no injuries had been reported, and that no oil or gas was seen
spilled during an initial flyover.
The workers are being transported to the Terrebonne General
Medical Center in Houma, La., according to the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard said the explosion took place at about 9:19 a.m.
CDT. The agency dispatched nine helicopters, one fixed-wing
aircraft and four cutters to the scene. A pilot who reported the
incident early on said the platform was engulfed in flames, said
Petty Officer Bill Colclough. At around 12:30 p.m. CDT, the Coast
Guard said the fire was still burning but under control. The cause
has yet to be determined.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Lehmann said that the visible
oily sheen measured one nautical mile by 100 feet.
The Mariner Energy platform is one of 634 manned oil-and-gas
platforms operating in the Gulf of Mexico. According to data posted
by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and
Enforcement, the platform, installed in 1980, stands in water 340
feet deep and is manned around the clock. This is much shallower
than the deep-water operations brought into the spotlight recently
by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
An internal report by the agency said that the platform had
about 100 barrels of oil stored on board. A water-blasting and
painting crew was on board the platform when the fire occurred.
In the last week of August, the facility produced a daily
average of 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas--the equivalent of
about 1,600 barrels of oil--and 1,400 barrels of oil and
condensate, according to Mariner, which is the sole owner of the
platform.
The Mariner platform fire comes just over four months after the
explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig
unleashed the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, driving
lawmakers to seek an overhaul of drilling regulations. The
Deepwater Horizon incident, which is costing U.K. oil giant BP PLC
(BP) billions of dollars, also cast doubt on whether smaller oil
companies would be able to handle the expense of responding to
offshore accidents.
Small fires aren't rare on older platforms such as the Vermilion
380, often occurring when existing wells are being worked on to
boost their capacity, said Ray Kizer, an analyst at energy
consultancy IHS. Mariner crews had been active on the platform from
mid-June until mid-July, according to Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management records. Weekly reports submitted by Mariner show the
company in early July reported it was extending the depth of one of
the seven wells attached to the platform.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy reported 133 fires or explosions in
the Gulf of Mexico in 2009. It said 130 were deemed "incidental,"
each accounting for at most $25,000 in damages; three were
classified as "minor," causing damages between $25,000 to $1
million.
After falling as much as 16% on the news, Mariner Energy shares
were recently down 2.3% at $22.82. Houston-based Mariner said that
the cause of the fire wasn't known but would be investigated.
Apache Corp. (APA), which said in April it would acquire the
company for $2.7 billion, also saw its shares slip, down 1.3% at
$91.30 Thursday afternoon. Apache spokesman Bob Dye said that the
company still expects to close the acquisition of Mariner later
this month or in the two first weeks of October, despite news of
the incident. Apache's bid for Mariner would give it its first
foothold in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico, which in recent years
has become a major growth area for big oil companies.
-By Tennille Tracy, Isabel Ordonez and Angel Gonzalez, Dow Jones
Newswires; 202-862-6619; tennille.tracy@dowjones.com;
713-547-9201;
(Jason Womack, Brian Baskin, Cassandra Sweet, Isabel Ordonez and
The Wall Street Journal's Jeffrey Ball and Russell Gold contributed
to this article.)
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