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Subscribe to RSSEleven people were injured in the production platform blast and oil spillage was minimal, according to the Coast Guard. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Updated at 5:56 p.m. ET: Coast Guard crews continued searching Saturday evening for two workers missing after an explosion and fire aboard a Gulf of Mexico oil rig on Friday that was apparently triggered by workers using a blow torch to cut a pipe.
Eleven workers on the rig were airlifted to hospitals after the accident some 17 miles southeast of Grand Isle, La. Four of the injured were in critical condition.
The fire was extinguished a few hours after the blast and Coast Guard Capt. Ed Cubanski told reporters that the platform appeared to be structurally sound. Twenty-two people had been aboard the rig at the time of the accident.
The search and rescue operation is making use of an 87-foot surface vessel assisted by a helicopter, the U.S. Coast Guard told NBC News Saturday night.
The platform was not actively producing oil and a sheen spotted in the water was probably from an estimated 28 gallons of oil that could have spilled when a pipe ruptured, Cubanski said Friday.
It does not appear the incident could lead to a major environmental disaster, added Coast Guard Capt. Peter Gautier.
Gerald Herbert / AP
Damage from the fire aboard a Gulf of Mexico oil rig is seen Friday after the fire was put out.
He said initial reports suggested that the explosion occurred when maintenance workers using a torch cut into a pipe with oil inside.
The platform is a shallow-water production platform, unlike BP's Macondo well that blew out in 2010 in mile-deep water. The Macondo explosion killed 11 workers and caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
The owner of the platform is Houston-based Black Elk Energy. On its website, the company stated that this month it was starting to drill the first of 23 new wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
Last Sunday, The Houston Chronicle named Black Elk Energy one of the top small businesses to work for in Houston based on employee surveys.
In August, the oil and gas company was named one of the fastest-growing privately held companies by Inc. Magazine.
The explosion came a day after BP settled criminal charges in the Macondo disaster by agreeing to pay $4.5 billion in penalties. It still faces up to $20 billion in civil fines.
Black Elk Energy was investigated last August by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement for an incident in which two employees were dropped 60 feet into Gulf of Mexico waters due to a crane malfunction, Reuters reported. No injuries were reported.
Black Elk also paid a $300,000 civil fine in September, related to a site inspection in 2011 of one of its facilities that revealed it was not complying with regulations.
Federal data also shows a small fire occurred at a Black Elk platform in February of 2011 in the Gulf of Mexico, but was quickly contained.
The company's chief executive, John Hoffman, formerly worked for BP Amoco, according to a report earlier this year in the Houston Business Journal. Hoffman founded Black Elk in 2007, the report said.
Friday's incident could reignite a national debate over safety standards for offshore drilling. After the Horizon spill, the government overhauled offshore drilling regulations and imposed a ban on drilling that lasted for several months.
"BP and the government may have settled criminal matters yesterday, but today's incident shows that increasing safety of offshore drilling and for hard-working men and women is still not a settled matter," Rep. Ed Markey, the ranking Democrat on the House National Resources Committee, said in a statement.
NBC's Edgar Zuniga Jr. as well as Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Will we not stop this insanity? How many messes in the Gulf do we have to have before we realize not to drill there?
You can go live in a cave if you like, but i'll not live like an animal. Until we have AFFORDABLE alternatives we need to use the resources we have. How do we get affordable alternatives? NOT by govt handouts to places like solyndra, but tax credits for research or if we must have handouts , then to research facilities. People want alternative fuels on both sides of the isle, but you can not force people to use them when they are not cost effective.
Teaxas has more wind power towers than any other state and are adding more in fact a business in ND just got bought out for pennies on the dollar by a Teaxas company. Say WHAT oil rich Teaxas buying up wind power what do they know? Oil prices will just continue to rise because its getting harder to get and is running out. Those who fail to plan,plan to fail.
DMI..
http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N4789.130761.5726861168321/B6597166.2;sz=728x90;ord=428181323?">
DMI Industries Inc. sold to Texas company
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Posted: 09/07/2012
WEST FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- A North Dakota-based wind tower manufacturer is being sold to a company in Texas.
Parent Otter Tail Corp. says it is selling DMI Industries Inc. plants, property and equipment in West Fargo; Tulsa, Okla.; and Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada; to Dallas-based Trinity Industries Inc. for $20 million.
The Fort Erie transaction closed on Sept. 6, and the West Fargo and Tulsa transactions are to close in the final two months of the year.
DMI employs 500 people among its three locations, including 216 in West Fargo. Otter Tail did not say how the sale will affect them.
Otter Tail's second-quarter earnings report said there has been a reduced demand for wind towers in part because of uncertainty surrounding the future of a federal tax break for wind energy.
http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/local_news/dmi-industries-inc-sold-to-texas-company
How many messes in the Gulf do we have to have before we realize not to drill there?........as many countries that have to fail in greece, spain, france, before we realize forward thinking and where it leads us to know not to go there.
No amount of regulation can fix stupid. We can regulate like crazy but HUMANS will still always make mistakes, wrong judgement calls, etc.
So wait, Texas, the State everyone hates, has the most wind power in the country (i already knew that). But then, just when everyone though the government could be the only way alternate energy would survive, a private company from Texas BOUGHT another company and will use their assets to build more wind power?
O.M.G. Fine them right now. Take all of their money. They are whats wrong with this big business country for the rich. Tax the helll ... out ... of ... o wait, nevermind, because its clean energy. Carry on.
Is it possible that the fuddy duddies of Big Oil can be totally unaware of the massive shift on the East Coast to solar energy? Brand new homes are being built with the most advanced solar panels embedded right into the roofs. Siding is being created that is solarized.
It isn't such a surprise that the few fuddy duddies out there who want to live like its the Antebellum and Gilded Age all over again can't wrap their minds around how backward their thinking is.
In the northeast, you don't have to buy the solar panels. You can lease them to buy or, get them for free if you want to just receive a monthly solar energy bill that half the cost of your old electric or natural gas bill.
Either people in the south, southwest and midwest are totally blocked from the shift away from oil and coal polluting energy or they need to leave their states and see what goes on elsewhere. SmartCars are no longer the minority and neither are the most current hybrids.
I laugh and laugh and laugh at the fools filling up those gas guzzler SUVs at $100 a tankful when I pay $20 a week for fuel for my smaller hybrid. Of course, downsizing to a more fuel efficient vehicle means downsizing those double sized butt ends to fit into them. So..fuel efficiency has yet another hidden benefit...healthier lives for the formerly double butted.
Fargo ND gas prices low $3.11 high $3.29 as 11/16/2012 Gee they don't think is gonna be a BIG one. Reverse psychology? They will say its much bigger or they aren't sure one week before the BIGGEST travel day of the year. You can bet prices will go up because of speculation of it being BIG! Lets not forget Black
FridayThursday too with all the stores being open for Xmas shopping.This is enough of a message for me that the Gulf doesn't want to be drilled in and have its oil extracted. I think we need to stop the madness immediately.
And where are you going to get your cheap energy if we stop offshore drilling?
Well we all know what this means, might as well just bend over now, cause price's will surely spike automatically, and take a year or so to come back down to a still no reasonable price.
Lets see what caused the explosion. I bet human error but maybe not, could be faulty outdated equipment. Regardless, we need to drill but we also need sound common sense regulations so these kinds of matters are limited. Also, oil spills and pipeline spills are very common throughout the world. Recently the Kalamazoo river in MI and the Yellowstone river in MT were both polluted due to pipeline spills. So here is my point, the next time an energy zealots screams drill baby drill remember we must be smart and cautious about what we do to limit the damage to our environment. we don't drill at all costs. Why do you think the state of Nebraska wanted nothing to do with the pipeline line from Canada? Smart, slow and cautious and we all turn out winners.
Nebraska did not want the pipeline going over their part of the Ogallala Aquifer, the same Aquifer they are draining faster than it can be replenished. Smart and cautious I can understand, but the slow part is being taken to extremes by overzealous agenda-driven bureaucrats and Presidents.
Bull@!$%#.
martinbecker, not bull, just news reported by the Liberal media. Even they cannot hide the facts all the time.
What me worry? Halley Barber of Mississippi said after the last disaster - "We have tar balls washing up on our shores all the time." Halley loves those petro dollars.
It's a NON working Rig....undergoing repairs....
It must be terrorist! That's the ticket! Scaremonger tactics! Gotta keep those profits up there!
Oh it is definitely a non-working rig We all know that now.
...
The President cannot ban gasoline soon enough.
Most of America is just going to have to lower their standard of living.
.
Joe Biden in 2016.
...
nothing, You actually want Biden for President? That explains your wanting to ban gasoline, complete detachment from reality.
DieHardCentrist
Gasoline fumes would explain a lot of his/her post...
Bad Animal, or perhaps the newly legal pot!
it's prez obama's fault...
Look, I do not like Obama either, but this cannot be his fault. Probably human error.
No it is Mitt Romney's fault er ah no it is Bobby Jindahl's fault er ah no it is BP's fault er ah no it is Putin's fault .....Ulong is an idiot.
Let's blame in on Xi Jinping, the new Chinese dictator!
who are you kidding, folks? rethugs/tpees would find and spin something to blame the debonaire prez for all the world's tragedies...
The Gulf is dead. Anyone for a plate of eyeless shrimp in dispersal sauce?
Thank God for our solid block of W coast Democratic Senators that will keep offshore drilling away from our beautiful waters.
Maybe if you are not willing to drill you should be get any oil!
@Neal in... huh?... "you should be get any oil?... huh?
ulong, sorry for the typo, If California is not willing to drill, perhaps they should not be getting any oil.
California already pays the highest prices for energy in the US. Largely this is the result of regulations on the types of gasoline they will let be sold. Most Refining companies would prefer not to do business there anyway.
Neal & tlins: The West will get exactly as much gas as we pay for. Oil is not distributed based on merit or state regulation: oil goes where it will get sold for a profit.
Thats why I always laugh at Keystone pipeline supporters as they beat thier chests and say it would be good for America. It starts in Canada and it ends in the Gulf. Its designed specifically to bring Canadian oil to the world market, while endangering the aquafers of 9 states. How exactly is this good for America?
That's a hard, dangerous job. I hope the missing workers are OK.
After the Deepwater Horizon accident, it was determined that regulators were signing off on safety issues without actually checking. The problem isn't lack of regulations, it's existing regulations not being observed and enforced. I hope that isn't the issue here. Cutting corners might save time and money, but it's not worth people's lives.
Can we please evolve beyond this dirty obsolete form of fuel already..
If we tax the polluters we will move along much quicker.
OfTheLight, What kind of alternative, mass-produced, competitive energy source do you propose to replace it?
Well Neal Let see-over time we could use natural gas, hydrogen, solar, wind, geothermal. Do you know the earth gets more energy from the sun every day than we can produce in oil in a century? Just how closed minded are you.
Other than natural gas (which we also get from Gulf rigs), none of your alternatives are competitive, scalable or as convenient as oil. Not closed-minded, just practical. The first obstacle to the alternatives? The ecos who are opposed to large solar farms (too much shade in the deserts), opposed to large wind farms (they spoil the view and kill birds), opposed to just about anything that would increase energy production in this country.
Nuclear energy is about the cleanest source out there.
Unfortunately, solar and wind are highly expensive, don't provide the technological maturity to match the energy output and unreliable (Clouds or still days) to work as an alternative to fossil fuels at this point.
Neal you are full of plop. Tlins is close behind.
Nuclear energy is the most expensive source of power per MWH - add to that the desirable feature of making land uninhabitable for centuries and you have a clunker.
Alternatives are feasible and scaleable, it only requires political will to accomplish it. But our politicians are bought and paid for by special interests, including the oil barons so you can bet there will never be enough "political will' when the time comes.
The best bet for any American is to learn to make your own energy. Put up a solar panel or two and buy an electric car. Nothing wrong with self-sufficiency.
That's capitalism when it fails. No government involvement. I better not see an Obama rant about this. Go online and dig up the CEO and use the appropriate persons as your punching bag.
Just wait, next week the politicians that are in the pocket of big oil will be crying, no more regulations. We should say we are sorry for criticizing oil companies. Looks at this fool Neal from Denver that is screaming now great oil is and all other sources of energy just won't do. Oil only.
How many more of these disasters do we have to have? Offshore drilling should be regulated much more stringently than it now is, and we should stop subsidizing the oil and gas industries. I want my tax dollars to help develop sustainable energy: wind, solar, tidal.
Heart goes out to the families of those injured and missing, but in the greater scheme of things, we need to stop playing with these kinds of risks.
Everywhere we drill we spill. Common sense strong regulations. Stop the polluting.
EveT, Wind, Soar and Tidal are not even close to sustainable yet. None can compete without huge government subsidies and all have serious, as yet, unsolved problems. There is no sign that any of there are about to become sustainable and as problem free as oil (note: I do not claim oil is perfect, just that is has fewer overall problems than the others) in the foreseeable future.
But over time or doesn't your pea brain think out that far.
martinbecker, the alternative energy people have been promising that solar and wind would become competitive "within the next five or ten years". They have been promising this since the 1970s. When will it really happen? Within the next 5, 10 or 100 years? My pea brain is simple tired of people making predictions and promises that simply do not pan out. The government has been pouring money into these technologies for decades with little or no return whatsoever (except for bankruptcy lawyers).
The whole oil industry is a mess (yeah, literally and figuratively)...it is full of greedy, money people and oddly, bull-headed "know it all" techies who wouldn't actually be in oil if they were any good. (from my own experience as a engineer of a large company who owned a major oil company for a while). The sooner we go solar/wind...and to a limited extent (shudder) Nuclear...the better. PS We need to develop China's "nuclear balls" technology to be really smart about it.
The sooner we go solar/wind, the sooner we will become un-competitive in the world market.
More small thinking. What do you think the Chinese are doing as we speak. They are going gangbusters on solar and wind technology because they realize they need to utilize all forms of energy.
martinbecker, the Chinese are still putting a coal-fired power plant on line at the rate of one every week or two. This makes their commitment to solar and wind a drop in the bucket by comparison. They are probably doing that as a propaganda ploy. They have also "relocated" two million citizens and are flooding thousands of farms and potential archeological sites for their Three Gorges Dams and they think, not know but think, they have solved the silting problem. The Chinese are not the ones to hold up as glowing examples of stewards of their land, water and especially air.
Darn, looks like those darn Democrats are busy trying to show how bad oil rigs in the water are.
Seriously I pray for the workers that are involved and that the environment will not suffer from this tragedy
dang!... and rethugs/tpees would conspire to blame the debonaire prez for the tragedy...
My thoughts and prayers to all the killed and injured, and their families...
Sorry oil rig owners there is NO excuse, workers and environmental safety over profit should always be the #1 rule. After the BP disaster, what no one learned anything????
I must have missed the part where it says the oil rig was in American waters. So, maybe it isn't Bush's fault after all.
OfTheLight....the problem is that oil is not an obsolete fuel. At this time, there is nothing to replace it.
The incredible ignorance of that statement precludes even the most sarcastic of retorts.
Well WillieOfRites...good luck with your Volt. Of course, a lot of petroleum went into building it. There wouldn't be much left without its interior or exterior body, or the tires and all those little belts and hoses...yup, they are all made of oil...even down to case of that battery that you are so fond of.
There will be a day, when man will look back on us and wonder why we had used such a wonderful resource for fuel. But then, he will remember that we were the people that used 60% of their annual corn crop to make a second rate fuel to replace gasoline to control the weather. Yikes!
It is the Gulf of Mexico so all drilling should be done by Mexico.
It hurts to hear of the workers on this rig at the time of the explosion. I hope now BP will be honest on the safety regulations that were violated. All the workers on the other rigs deserve this much.
Drill baby Drill! Not anymore in the Gulf..PERIOD!
Send Sarah down there to talk to the familes of those that just lost loved one...
Yep keep drilling. Rape the earth. Burn more fossil fuel. Mother Earth will soon have revenge.
Exactly, that was YESTERDAY.
The ONLY THING OUR PLANET has left is clean water, well, almost clean! When are we going to stop DESTROYING OUR ENVIRONMENT with UNCONTROLLED CAPITALISTIC GREED!
We should have LONG AGO been operating on Natural Gas for our homes & autos with drilling in our lower states!!! Then, we should have ALREADY BEEN CONVERTING to Magnetically-Driven Electrical Energy which is 100% NON-POLLUTANT & 100% FOSSIL FUEL FREE!! What the hell are we waiting for TOTAL DESTRUCTION!
STOP ALL OCEAN WATER DRILLING IMMEDIATELY before it's too late for everyone!!!!
How are we going to STOP THIS CORRUPTION?
TR, the solution is a lot fewer people on the planet. Increasing populations around the world create more demand for energy. Fewer people, less energy. My estimate is world population would be fine at about 1.5 billion. And no, I will not volunteer to lead the decrease by being the first to die.
Another texas ran rig cutting corners. Is the value of life EVER going to become more important than money?