Report two dead, two missing in Gulf platform explosion

OFF THE GULF COAST - KHOU-TV says that two people are dead and two people are missing after an explosion at a platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
The U.S. Coast Guard confirms there is an offshore platform burning in the Gulf of Mexico in the area of West Delta Block 32.

This is all the info I have , will post more as updates come in.

www.wwltv.com...

We haven't even cleaned up from the last mess totally. I hope it isn't as bad as the last one. At least it's a shallow well.

I haven't seen anything on the TV or websites....good find!

Keep us posted.

Edit to add: Some interesting facts about the area.

Significant salt intrusive feature, elliptical in shape, created traps in the Pliocene through the middle Miocene in a series of complex, steeply dipping fault blocks

Intense faulting near and immediately above the salt stock leading to numerous compartmentalized reservoirs; less intense faulting further away leading to larger, more continuous reservoirs

Source

Another article on this can be found here:

www.khou.com...


Hope that they can bring this under control swiftly with no further loss of life..

reply to post by nighthawk1954


This is horrible news. Although I no longer live off the coast, I have a brother-in-law, and friends that still work on platforms.

I guess I will be making some phone calls here pretty soon!

UPDATE!
www.wwltv.com...

In addition, four people have been airlifted to West Jefferson Hospital, two of them who are said to be in critical condition.
The U.S. Coast Guard confirms there is an offshore platform burning in the Gulf of Mexico in the area of West Delta Block 32.

Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts said the rig in question is a shallow water platform in the Gulf of Mexico. It is near West Cote Blanche Bay, south of New Iberia on the south-central Louisiana coast.
The rig belongs to Black Elk Energy out of Houston and it produces both oil and natural gas.

A spokesman for the company confirmed that the rig was manned at the time of the fire.

He said several boats are responding to the fire, both Coast Guard and Good Samritans.

reply to post by nighthawk1954

Thank you, OP, for reporting this for ATS members so quickly.

This tragedy is yet another reminder that for the men and women who make their living on drilling rigs, the work is often brutally hard and sometimes very dangerous, especially when they're offshore and their chances of escape are much more limited.

These workers earn every penny they get, especially considering how vital the work they're doing really is.

My condolences to the families of the dead and missing. Let's hope that the numbers lost won't rise any further.

Mike

LIVE FEED!
www.wwltv.com...

4 people flown to a hospital in critical condition!

reply to post by nighthawk1954

Thanks for the updates.

Here's a link to Black Elk Energy's News Page on their website. There's nothing announced there yet, but as the platform's owners we can expect they'll have to put out a press release pretty soon, so it's worth having it up so members can monitor it.

Mike

The fire is out, 2 missing ,7 Coast Guard vessels on the way plus other boats.

It was a none produceing platform.

Black Elk CEO has responded:

Hoffman said a construction crew was finishing work on a water skimmer when it appears that the wrong line was cut, which resulted in the explosion and fire.

Source

For those who follow it for bits of info, the Twitter live update page (under #platformfire) is here.

Mike

Thanks Mike!

reply to post by nighthawk1954

No worries. Glad to help.

By the way, that link I gave to Black Elk Energy's News page is now coming up for me as a 404. Strange... Or maybe just too many people trying to access it right now and the server crashed?

Meanwhile I see the USCG reported 11 people medevac'ed, nine taken off safe, and two people still missing. (Sourced from the Twitter feed link above.)

Update

www.khou.com...