A gas platform explosion has transpired at a platform within the Gulf of Mexico. Nobody passed away when a single person was injured. There is still no answer as to why the blast happened. The blast occurred in an oil rig on the coast of Louisiana close to Vermillion Bay. The rig, owned by Mariner Energy, is hundreds of miles west of the Bp gas rig that erupted in April. The Vermillion rig was luckily in very shallow water. This is much not the same as the Deepwater platform that erupted within the Gulf Coast.
Oil rig explosion injures one
Only a single person was reported to be hurt in the surge of the oil platform. 13 individuals did end up overboard after the drilling rig exploded. The Coast Guard, according to the brand new York Times, received more than one report of an oil rig in flames just after 9 a.m. on today. Helicopters and Coast Guard vessels arrived about an hour later. The Coast Guard rescued 13 workers. All of them were accounted for. Only one of the rig workers was injured, which is nothing short of miraculous, considering the Deepwater gas platform surge claimed 11 lives.
Shallower waters than British Petroleum gas rig
The Vermillion Oil Rig 380 was not drilling nearly as deep as the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was. There are only 340 feet of water beneath the Vermillion oil rig. It is also only about 100 miles off the shoreline of Louisiana. 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas and 1,400 barrels of oil were coming out of the rig, says CNN. The Coast Guard is intending first to get the fire out. As soon as people caught wind of the surge, company shares went down. In fact, Mariner Energy dropped 5 percent.
Offshore drilling
Debate over offshore drilling has been hot for a when. It has been years. It looks really dangerous and has too many risks to the environment every time an oil rig explodes. Taxpayers generally have to pay for explosions since resource extraction businesses hardly ever clean up their own mess, although British Petroleum has done a good job with its oil spill.
CNN
edition.cnn.com/2010/US/09/02/louisiana.oil.platform.explosion/?hpt=T2#fbid=QdDzKvaTDgY and wom=false
NY Times
nytimes.com/2010/09/03/us/03rig.html?partner=rss and emc=rss
