If anyone has any doubt as to the massive energy contained
in an uncontrolled drilling rig natural gas kick please look at these
picures for a few moments. Those of you who remember the Piper Alpha disaster
in the North Sea (1989) will see major similarities, although this platform
is a bit smaller.
Fire on ENI/BP's Platform Offshore Egypt Rages for Second Day... From
what I understand the well came in when nippling down the BOP after
cementing. Apparently control of the well was lost when it began to
flow up the casing annulus following cementing and while nippling down
to set the slips. The jack up sank and the platform is expected to be
a total loss.
Egyptian firefighters worked for a second straight day to douse a fire
on an offshore natural gas platformp art-owned by ENI SpA and BP PLC.
An Agence France-Presse correspondent saw six teams of firefighters
backed by helicopters leaving Port Said early morning for the Temseh
platform, where the blaze was set off yesterday, apparently by accident.
An oil industry source said it would take five days to extinguish the
fire. All 150 workers on the platform, run by Petrobel and owned by
ENI, BP and Egypt's General Petroleum Corp, were evacuated. Temseh is
one of Egypt's largest gas deposits, producing between 150-180 million
cubic feet per day.
The platform had been shut for maintenance at the start of the month.
The fire initially broke out on jackup working alongside the platform,
the GSF Adriatic IV, which has sunk. Officials said it was caused by
an overflow of natural gas during drilling. The initial blaze was brought
under control yesterday afternoon, but for reasons that are still unclear
it later spread to the platform, which erupted into flame. "Equipment
damage was considerable," an oil ministry official said today,
without giving a precise estimate.
GlobalSantaFe reports that one of the company's drilling rigs, the
GSF Adriatic IV, was severely damaged during a fire and sank in the
Mediterranean Sea approximately 25 mileso ffshore Egypt. The fire occurred
at 8:45 a.m. local time on Tuesday, August 10, 2004, following a well
control incident. There were no injuries and all 79 persons onboard
the drilling rig were safely evacuated by boat to the nearest shorebase.
The personnel on the rig included 44 GlobalSantaFe employees and 35
contract workers.
"We are thankful we were able to safely evacuate all personnel
from the rig without injury," said GlobalSantaFe's President and
Chief Executive Officer.
At the time of the incident, the rig was located over a production
platform owned by Petrobel, a joint venture between Eni and the Egyptian
General Petroleum Corporation. The rig had been at the location for
58 days.
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