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Hercules Drill Rig Engulfed in Flames - Now What?

Wednesday, July 24, 2013 10:06

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At about 11pm Central time last night, the Hercules 265 jackup drill rig in the Gulf ignited. It’s now engulfed in flames. Options for controlling the gas blowout are now a lot more limited, since the rig can’t be occupied by well-control specialists. Eventually the well might collapse on itself, “bridging over” and shutting off the flow of natural gas. Otherwise a long and complicated intervention might be required, such as the drilling of a relief well — the solution required to kill BP’s runaway Macondo well in 2010, Chevron’s fatal blowout off Nigeria in 2012, and the months-long blowout and massive oil spill off Australia at the Montara platform in 2009. Either way, the rig is certainly a total loss.

Photo of West Atlas drill rig and Montara platform on fire off Australia in 2009. Photograph from WA Today.

We saw nothing unusual at the site on yesterday’s MODIS satellite images, which were taken in early afternoon, long before the fire began. Today’s images might be more interesting, although we’re not expecting to see any significant slick on the water. Luckily, this well was apparently just a gas producer. Otherwise the situation could be gravely worse, from an environmental and economic perspective.

We have questions, as usual: Was the blowout preventer engaged? If not, why not? If so, why did it fail to do its job? Should the feds speed up the implementation of new BOP standards? Would these new standards have addressed the problem in this case?

Source: http://blog.skytruth.org/2013/07/hercules-drill-rig-engulfed-in-flames.html

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