WEST COTE BLANCHE, La. (AP/CBS) - An explosion and fire ripped through a Gulf oil platform Friday as
workers used a cutting torch, killing two people, sending at least four
others to a hospital with burns and leaving two more missing in waters
off Louisiana.
Kirk Trascher, a spokesman for rig owner Black Elk Energy, told CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV that two workers died in the incident. Black Elk is an independent oil and gas company headquartered in Houston.
Petty Officer Carlos Vega, a Coast Guard spokesman, told CBS News that the two missing workers had jumped overboard.
Coast
Guard Capt. Ed Cubanski told a news conference in New Orleans the well
was not producing at the time and no oil was leaking. A small amount of
oil spilled from the rig when workers using a torch cut into a
75-foot-long, 3-inch-wide line on the platform. Cubanski said a sheen
one-half mile long and 200 yards wide was reported in the area.
"It's not going to be an uncontrolled discharge from everything we're getting right now," Cubanski said.
The
fire had since been extinguished, said Coast Guard spokesman Drake
Fore. He said Coast Guard aircraft and boats were searching for two
missing people.
Taslin Alfonzo, spokeswoman for West
Jefferson Medical Center in suburban New Orleans, said four injured
workers were brought to the hospital in critical condition with second-
and third-degree burns over much of their bodies. Three arrived by
helicopter at 9:55 a.m. and one by helicopter at 10:10 CST.
Two
were sent by ambulance to the Baton Rouge Burn Center. Two others were
to be sent later. She could not release identities or any other
information.
The production platform is about 25 miles
southeast of Grand Isle, La. The Coast Guard said 26 people were aboard
the platform at the time of the explosion.
The platform
is for oil production from an established well, unlike the Deepwater
Horizon rig, which was drilling an exploratory well for oil giant BP in
mile-deep water when it blew up and triggered a massive oil spill in
2010. That site is well to the east of Friday's explosion.
Cubanski
said the platform appeared to be structurally sound. After the April
2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, that rig burned for about 36
hours before suffering structural collapse and sinking to the Gulf
floor.
The Black Elk platform is in 56 feet of water. Cubanski said 28 gallons of oil were in the broken line.
The Coast Guard got the call about the fire at 8:42 a.m. CST.
A federal official in Washington said a team of environmental enforcement inspectors was flying to the scene.
David
Smith, a spokesman for the Interior Department's Bureau of Safety and
Environmental Enforcement, said the team was dispatched from a Gulf
Coast base by helicopter soon after the Coast Guard was notified of the
emergency. Smith said the team would scan for any evidence of oil
spilling and investigate the cause of the explosion.
Black Elk's website said it holds interests in properties in Texas and Louisiana waters, including 854 wells on 155 platforms.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press/CBS News Interactive. All Rights Reserved.)
Credit: KLFY-TV in Lafayette
