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Subscribe to RSSSearchers in the Gulf of Mexico say they've found the body of one of the two people who went missing after an oil platform explosion on Friday. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
Updated at 5:40 a.m. ET: Divers found a body Saturday evening below the oil platform that caught fire after an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard and an official of the company that owns the rig said.
Black Elk Energy President and CEO John Hoffman told reporters in Houston that a body was spotted on the sea floor by a dive team hired by the company to supplement the Coast Guard search for two workers missing after an explosion and fire wracked the rig on Friday.
"Divers will continue to search for the second missing worker," Hoffman wrote in an email. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families."
Gerald Herbert / AP
In this aerial photograph, a supply vessel moves near an oil rig damaged by an explosion and fire on Friday in the Gulf of Mexico about 17 miles southeast of Grand Isle, La.
Hoffman said the body was found close to the leg of the platform, near where the explosion occurred, in about 30 feet of water. He said the missing men were employees of oilfield contractor Grand Isle Shipyard.
Coast Guard spokesman Carlos Vega told The Associated Press that the Coast Guard was turning over the remains to local authorities.
Earlier Saturday, the Coast Guard called off the search for the two workers. Three helicopter crews, a Coast Guard cutter and a fixed-wing aircraft crew had searched a 1,400-square-mile area around the platform, the Coast Guard said in a statement.
Coast Guard searches for 2 missing after Gulf oil rig blast
Coast Guard Capt. Peter Gautier said initial reports suggested that the explosion occurred when maintenance workers using a torch cut into a pipe with oil inside. Twenty-two people were on board the rig when the fire broke out and unleashed a black plume of smoke. Eleven workers were evacuated and nine others were taken by helicopter to hospitals.
Four workers airlifted to Louisiana's West Jefferson Medical Center suffered second- and third-degree burns to large parts of their bodies, said Taslin Alfonzo, a hospital spokeswoman.
The incident occurred a day after oil giant BP agreed to pay a record $4.5 billion in penalties for its role in the 2010 Gulf oil spill that killed 11 workers and spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil.
Since the Black Elk-operated rig was offline at the time of the fire, there was little risk of a major oil spill, officials said.
Eleven people were injured in the production platform blast and oil spillage was minimal, according to the Coast Guard. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
The platform sits in 56 feet of water some 17 miles south of Grand Isle, La., and production had been shut down since mid-August, Black Elk said.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which enforces offshore drilling regulations, is investigating the fire.
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 platform is a shallow-water production platform, unlike BP's Macondo well, which 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.
NBC News' Justin Kirschner contributed to this report, which contains information from Reuters.
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Petroleum is still a flammable liquid, is it not?
More flammable than the oil are usually the natural gas and methane, which usually accompany the oil. That said, I am sure they probably have had, and needed to have, many open flames on oil rigs over the years for various maintenance reasons. Something just happened this time.
The workers used a cutting torch to cut off a pipe containing oil. The pipes were at an oil/water separating unit. The question is did the worker cut the wrong pipe?
It was most likley a "dirty" Line filled with condensate and oil, and being the rig had been shut down for a long period I'm sure it was probably left over or in a trapped position in the line that didn't get blown down all the way. Leaving fumes, fumes are a welders worst enemy. Gas oil catches fire and burns for most part, But fumes and condensate are bombs waiting to go off. Better wo weld on live line with lots of pressure than a dead line with fumes and fuel trapped or sitting in them. Either way very tragic and horrible that they lost two fellow workers but that they havn't found them. I've been lucky as have so of my freinds in the gulf. sad but the truth is a lot of costley mistakes in our industry our human error, mostlikley from operators not blowing down the lines correctly or not seeing places in the line that could trap product or fumes, or not having properly working gas detectors and checkiing lines before cutting into them.
How would that be possible? I would assume this kind of work would have to be approved by engineering. We had people of higher rank in the military that quality assured less hazardous work of subordinates in the Coast Guard. A life vest that may never be used in its entire service life. A life vest inspection that is signed off by a quality assurance manager is not nearly as life threatening as cutting the wrong pipe on an oil rig.
This is unbelievable!
Black Elk called for a cold cut saw to be used, (per first article when story broke) so they knew at least one line was dirty, Grand Isle Shipyard was doing the work, someone started cutting into a line with a cutting torch that shouldn't have been torched. Brian's 100% right about "dirty lines" being very dangerous.
Person cut wrong pipe, got in a hurry, miss read print, line had a connection to other line that went over looked causing back flash, until complete investigation is done it is anyone's guess.
WAS... fastest-growing privately held companies ..baby steps now.
Chit happens!
Well, at least now we know someone there has some intelligence.
I'd hate to think there were a bunch of aliens running around in possession of human beings working on oil rigs.
Break out the axe in Washington state.
Maybe it's just Mother Nature showing her displeasure over our sellout government settling with BP for so little money, after they tried to poison our sweet planet.
Condolences to the families and friends of the employees that lost their lives, and may the injured workers have speedy recoveries.
Makes you wonder what kind of idiots get jobs on an oil rig. I was offered a high paying job in the coal mines but turned it down due to the fear of idiots, not the fear of the mine itself.
so bullybeater.....what totaly safe and idiot free workplace do you work in now?...........or did you just find one more excuse not to work?
What a tragic accident.
Why would you search a 1400 square mile grid looking for two people who jumped or were blown off a stationary oil rig?
Um probably because of the currents in the gulf. Drop somthing in florida and it will most likely sooner or later end up on a texas shore.
That close to the mouth of the Mississippi River there are heavy currents, plus tides moving in and out of all the bays in the area can carry a person quite far in a small amount time.
Worked and fished that area most of my life and when the tides move in from the deep golf into those shallow bays a lot of water is moved, plus there are 1000s of small marsh islands in that area.
Also 1400 square miles is not a very big area.
For over time pay! No other reason.
The company did supply their own search crew too..and their search crew found one body..right under the platform!
Never been in the Gulf before, WJim? Ever heard of the Gulf stream? It's a strong current that flows out of the Gulf and up past Nova Scotia. It's thousands of miles long, so a search area of more than 700 miles isn't unrealistic.
They were looking for survivors. Now they're waiting for a body to be discovered or float ashore.
Drill, Baby, Dr** Uh Oh.... s$#@!
perhaps you should "walk baby walk" dont forget to turn off your computer, cant be using petroleum based products ya know......
Right2Left - With your line of thinking we should shut down everything when an accident happens in that industry. Well, lets shutdown: drilling, nuclear, gas production, coal production, airlines, car transportation, bus transportation, housing, building construction, farming, etc.
I am so sorry for the Families of the two people missing, I hope and pray for the best.
Terri
This is so terrible, why would the coast guard call the search off already? when we are trained in offshore survival training we are told as a rule of thumb that the coast guard will search for us for atleast 3 days. and as for this question ...(( Why would you search a 1400 square mile grid looking for two people who jumped or were blown off a stationary oil rig? ))because those men are someones father, son, husband, brother and friend, and because of the currents. I myself am an offshore welder and i know the feeling that you get when we cut into these pipes...it's a scary feeling ... but at the end of our 16 to 18 hour shifts we are all out there doing the same thing....... providing for our families. please god give these two lost souls and theire families peace
The USCG does not give up without a dam good reason. In searches like this its typical they would drop drift markers in the water to show direction and speed of drift. I have the utmost respect for the Men and Women of the USCG, they are Hero's one and all in my book. And no I wasn't in the USCG.
Q: Do they have adequately enforced safety regulations on these rigs? They always seem to be 1 misstep away from disaster, and afterwards the cause tends to be exposed as seriously simple minded.
we do have a lot of safety rules and regulations and trust me, at the end of our hitch we all want to come home the same way we left it, all ten fingers and toes, the type of work that we do is extremly hard and our trade is not one that just any joe can do, there really should be no reason for this to have happened especially since before we as welders cut into any pipes we speak with the operator of the platform and they know and tell us what pipes have been cleaned out, shut down, and pig tailed. and we also take gas readings from the area that we are cutting grinding and welding in.
Its construction and human error. Very sad but they most likely cut into the wrong line. Either from being missinformed or personal error. their is plenty of regulation on safety for sure. I spent five years working the gulf on platforms in this same area and others. The 1400 mile search is probably do to the currents in the gulf. it wouldn't take long to be dragged a long ways. most likely towards texas.
As a former Safety Coordinator/Paramedic in the oilfield I can attest to strict safety regs, like guillermo012 pointed out everyone out there wants to go home safely.
As to what happened here it looks like when Black Elk engineers spec-ed out the job they called for a cold cut saw to be used, some where between BE and Grand Isle Shipyard's crew who were doing the job that fact got over looked. They may not have had the right saw with them, cut into the wrong pipe, someone got in a hurry or any number of other reasons why this happened.
It is dangerous work no doubt, work being done 24/7 in harsh environments, with very unforgiving equipment and chemicals, but those men and women put in millions of man hours every year with out incident. No one wants anyone hurt that includes the oil execs.
@ Greg_S, look up the number of wells and platforms in the Gulf, and compare that with the number of incidents/accidents. You will see an absolute exemplary safety record.
Very very sad. I so hoped they would be found safe. My prayers to their familys & friends.
Thoughts and prayers to the injured, missing and all their family's.
Thanks once again to the Coast Guard for all they do, even though oil companies don't pay taxes to support them.
Prayers for these workers and their family's it's tragic...
And Joethelib,
Oil Company Tax Breaks?
Both leading Democratic candidates have referred to tax breaks to oil companies:
Clinton, July 23, 2007: First of all, I have proposed a strategic energy fund that I would fund by taking away the tax break for the oil companies, which have gotten much greater under Bush and Cheney.
Obama, June 22, 2007: In the face of furious lobbying, Congress brushed aside incentives for the production of more renewable fuels in favor of more tax breaks for the oil and gas companies.
Both candidates are referring to H.R. 6, the 2005 energy bill that contained $14.3 billion in subsidies for energy companies. However, as we've reported numerous times, a vast majority of those subsidies (all but $2.8 billion) were for nuclear power, energy-efficient cars and buildings, and renewable fuels research. In addition, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, the tax changes in the 2005 energy bill produced a net tax increase for the oil and gas companies, as we've reported time and time and time again. They did get some breaks, but they had more taken away.
-Emi Kolawole
Joe they pay a lot in Taxes if the Goverment wastes that money,then it's on them as usual.
Sources
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: A Change We Can Believe In. 3 Nov. 2007. Obama for America. 26 Feb. 2008.
ECONOMY: Policy Address on America's Economic Challenges. 19 Nov. 2007. Hillary Clinton for President. 26 Feb. 2008.
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: Taking Our Government Back. 22 Jun. 2007. Obama for America. 26 Feb. 2008.
Democratic Presidential Debate. 23 Jul. 2007. CNN Transcripts.
Congressional Research Service. "Oil and Gas Tax Subsidies: Current Status and Analysis." Washington: GPO, 2007.
U.S. Government Accountability Office. "Offshoring of Services: An Overview of the Issues," Nov. 2005.
All your babble is dust in the wind. Bottom line I don't care who passed the tax laws for the oil companies. They don't pay for the Navy to escort their ships around the world or the Coast Guard to save their workers.
I understand as a RWNJ you tow the party line. As Liberal I follow my own path and will call out a democrat when I think there wrong just as I will praise a republican who does the right thing.
It is still wrong for oil companies not to pay taxes to support our Military and Coast Guard
joethelib - The oil companies pay taxes. Who makes more on a gallon of gas purchased by the consumer? The oil company or the government? Answer: The government.
h20skier
Last five years, B P paid NO Federal Income Tax, Last five years Shell paid NO Federal income tax. Services by USN and USCG for escort and rescue work over One Billion Dollars. 5 Billion dollars paid to oil companies in Subsidies and grants, all borrowed and put on the Nat. Debt. 11% of gas cost is Fed. Tax and about 30% is the oil companies profit.
Try again when the facts are on your side.
The government SHOULD make more money on the oil. The oil belongs to the US, not the oil companies, until they BUY it from the taxpayers. The oil companies do not own the Gulf. They do not have an automatic right to the oil, the Gulf is not theirs. Get it? The oil belongs to the citizens of the United States.
And thanks to Joethelib for the facts on the taxes.
oh comeon I wanna see pictures of it!
Gives you a hard-on, does it?
apperantly its ok
money for blood
the way of the united states
thanks people in charge ,always outweighs human life with paper
sadsadsad
You can always move to Bosnia, Cambodia, or visit countless countries in Africa if you think they'll treat you better there...
Seems to me, you'd check the pipe, before you put a torch to IT! DUH!
Propaganda from MSN to ADVANCE "green energy", just like the "massive spill" in the gulf, except they were unable to get pictures of dead animals, for environmentalist wackoes to exploit (damn it).
Every job has its RISKS and also plenty of Government regulations to prevent them. No we don't need MORE REGULATIONS........shyte happens.
We need more regulations if it is going to prevent more destruction of our shorelines. I do not choose to risk those for a few jobs. Risks to workers are different. They choose to work those jobs, and they are paid well for it. Acceptable risk is fine there. But risking the environment, no way. I want whatever regulations it takes to protect our home. We cant go find another one.
Sounds like someone was in a hurry.
So, this accident happened on a production platform and not on an exploration offshore drilling rig?
Wait a second, in this explanation the authors of this article are claiming this is a rig, not a production platform or mingling the two descriptions to confuse. Is their some intentional spin going on with the distinction of an operating rig or a production platform to taint the minds of readers to believe that the justification of a huge decline in offshore drilling permits will win over public opinion. While foreign Oil operators (including china) are vamping up the rig counts and inching ever closer to our coastal waters?
If you take a look at that rig, there isn't much to it to begin with, so it didn't look like a production platform, maybe only did small operations. "Rig" is a collective term to describe any type of operation. Could be production, drilling, distribution...gas compression...etc..they all have pipelines leaving them, some coming to. A production rig has flowlines coming from wells off the sea floor or through another pipeline and stabilized (has all the gas and oil removed from it) crude leaves as the product.
What they all have in common is that they have pressurized fluids that once they lose their containment have disastrous consequences. Think about what a "pipe bomb" does when it goes off.
Oil companies have strict operating and maintenance procedure requiring the system being work on to be isolated, depressurized, drained, vented, and checking for presence of flammable gas in the area prior to and during welding operations. I think someone just cut the wrong line...possibly under intense pressure from "management" to git-er-done....this is what happened on Piper Alpha and also on Deepwater...when you've got some corporate suit screaming at you to get stuff done and he//she is standing right there threatening you with your job...that is only one possibility. We don't know what happened to cause this YET, so we wait for the inquest, which is always a matter of public record. It will now have a high profile because there were fatalities this time.
It could have been something as simple as human error. The smaller operators have to stil follow the rules, but they rarely make the news..and they are not under as much scrutiny as the Chevron, Shell, Exxon-Mobil, Conoco-Phillips, BP... and never really have been. That rig looks pretty gnarly like they bought it from someone else because it's really rusted out.
In closing, my thoughts and prayers to the families of the wounded and the lost.
Condolences to the famlies of the victims.
They died doing their jobs, and im sure they wouldnt have it any other way. Its a high risk industry, and they get paid the big bucks because of it. Ive had a couple high risk jobs myself, and the possibility of death was always present. But people who do those jobs accept the risk. I certainly did. Theres a certain thrill that goes along with jobs like that. Work is never boring, thats for sure.
For thrills do some mountain climbing and skydiving. Try to keep paying jobs as safe as they can be - keeps the cost down for everyone.
It is always a tragedy when people die.
What about the constant reminder that oil drilling is not that safe - when something goes "wrong" - which happens too often - people die and our land, water and air get extra polluted, killing all kinds of living creatures and ruining our environment for generations ahead. This is a reminder to make the process safer AND look for and invest in alternative renewable energy sources.
Oil drilling is not safe and our oil companies want to drill for it as fast as they can at their own record profits.
This is a sad occurence, yet oddly happy since no one has figured out how to blame BP for this yet. I'm sure that by this time next week that it will all be the fault of BP and the US govt. for not protecting idiots who can't follow instructions apparently.
First, before I get nasty replies, my condolances to the families of the two people who died...nothing will make that better.
Now, you can all respond and condemn me but, ............I am completely opposed to off shore drilling. It has taken a huge toll on the gulf coast. I live in California and we make a lot of money from people visiting..San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Francisco, Santa Catalina,Newport Beach, Laguna Beach....everything tied to the "beach" we have a major spill here and it will close the state down...there are no real ways to stop an oil spill that are foolproof. My suggestion is that we all get together and pursue alternative sources for power and cars. I can still hear. Palin "drill baby drill" she will destroy Alsaka and one of the few places that still are pretty much pristine. I do not believe man or MS. PALIN were sent here to destroy the earth.
Okay I've had my say and all you drillers can just beat me up.
I'm also opposed to offshore drilling. They are unsafely tapping into our limited reserves to make unlimited profits.
My sad thoughts are for the poor soul found laying on the sea bed 50 feet below the surface. Amazing what some people will do so others can drive around aimlessly in their big expensive SUVs and this guy probably only owned a little compact.
Don't you expect that in the kind of world we live in now?
The dangers for getting the last remaining petroleum will only increase as the source decreases. More wars will be fought for the remaining oil. Too bad many have so little regard for life, our planet's very life.
And He will bring ruin to those ruining the earth.
Tragic and terrible accident. If safety protocols were missed by mistake then certainly an accident. However, if needed protocols aren't in place that should be then put them in place. Condolences to the families.
Drill baby drill! Our military should't be cleaning up these people's messes. This company that owns this oil rig already owes the American people millions of dollars.
There was a man from Garygoil
who was completely dipped in oil.
When the coroner asked, 'How did he die?"
His wife said, "Of natural causes and a company lie!"