Oil rig on fire in the Gulf of Mexico

[Evil Chris]

Great. Another oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico has exploded and on fire.

20 nautical miles SE of New Orleans...

[Wizzo]

Actually, its a natural gas well not oil is what they are reporting here and not a deep water rig like the last, so hopefully it won't be as much devastation as Deepwater Horizon had but sad for the families who lost loved ones.

[CDSmith]

Whatever kind of rig it is you can bet it's enough reason for gas prices to go up everywhere.

A mouse farts on one of those rigs and the price at the pump goes up 5 cents a litre.

[Rochard]

Drill baby drill!

[sarettah]

Originally Posted by Wizzo

Actually, its a natural gas well not oil is what they are reporting here and not a deep water rig like the last, so hopefully it won't be as much devastation as Deepwater Horizon had but sad for the families who lost loved ones.

Not according to what I just read. It is an oil rig but was not in operation, it also wasn't exploratory like the BP one was. So, you are right that it should not be as bad.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-...-off-la-coast/

An explosion and fire ripped through a Gulf oil platform Friday as workers used a cutting torch, killing two people and sending four others to a hospital with burns.

John Hoffman, chief executive of rig owner Black Elk Energy, confirmed to CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV that two workers died in the incident. Black Elk is an independent oil and gas company headquartered in Houston.

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.

..........

The production platform is about 25 miles southeast of Grand Isle, La.

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.

...........