2ND UPDATE: US Officials To Investigate Mariner Platform Fire
September 03 2010 - 11:14AM
Dow Jones News
The U.S. government announced Friday it has started an
investigation into Thursday's fire at Mariner Energy Inc.'s (ME)
offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
The incident took place in a shallow-water platform and sent 13
workers overboard. They were all rescued and no oil appears to have
been spilled. The inquiry will be conducted by a newly created
investigative unit within the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management,
Regulation and Enforcement - a government agency that has itself
undergone a tremendous amount of reform.
In the weeks following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar formed the BOEMRE division out of the
formerly named Minerals Management Service, a heavily-criticized
unit that oversaw offshore drilling and production.
The investigation into the Mariner Energy platform will be among
the high-profile tasks being performed by BOEMRE.
"We will use all available resources to ensure that we find out
what happened, how it happened, and what enforcement action should
be taken if any laws or regulations were violated," said bureau
Director Michael R. Bromwich.
The investigative unit started to conduct interviews last night
to try to determine the circumstances surrounding the fire, said
Interior Dept. spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz.
The U.S. Coast Guard will support the investigation.
The government's inquiry will coincide with Mariner Energy's own
internal review. In fact, Mariner is trying to get its own people
onto the platform Friday - located about 100 miles south of
Louisiana's Vermilion Bay - to determine the causes of the fire and
the extent of the damage.
"The process has already started," said Mariner Energy spokesman
Tom Sommers.
Mariner Energy's platform fire occurred roughly four-and-a-half
months after the Deepwater Horizon caught fire, unleashing the
worst offshore spill in U.S. history.
But there are few similarities between the two events. For
starters, Mariner's Vermilion structure is a production platform
that collects oil and gas from seven remote wells, while Deepwater
Horizon was a drilling rig.
Nevertheless, the Mariner Energy event is almost certain to play
a role in future debates over the government's oversight of
offshore operations and the Obama administration's controversial
ban on deepwater drilling.
Mariner's shares were up 1.7% at $23.13 in early trading after
falling 2.6% Thursday. The company is in the midst of being
acquired by Apache Corp. (APA) for $2.7 billion.
-By Tennille Tracy, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6619;
tennille.tracy@dowjones.com
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