A Chevron rig caught fire off Nigeria's coast, and the company was searching for two missing workers. The company has not said what sparked the blaze. Image courtesy of Chevron.
Hide Caption
A Chevron rig caught fire off Nigeria's coast, and the company was searching for two missing workers. The company has not said what sparked the blaze. Image courtesy of Chevron.
Hide Caption
Traditional chiefs await the visit of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, to Koluama 2 village, Nigeria on Monday, Feb. 27, 2012. President Goodluck Jonathan visited the community Monday, the nearest settlement to a Chevron Corp. offshore gas rig site that remains on fire after an apparent industrial accident Jan. 16, 2012. Jonathan sought to assure residents on his visit, but many remain worried about the environmental impact of the ongoing blaze. Photo: Sunday Alamba / AP
Hide Caption
Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan, is welcome by Koluama 2 residents, in Nigeria on Monday, Feb. 27, 2012. President Goodluck Jonathan visited the community Monday, the nearest settlement to a Chevron Corp. offshore gas rig site that remains on fire after an apparent industrial accident Jan. 16, 2012. Jonathan sought to assure residents during his visit, but many remain worried about the environmental impact of the ongoing blaze. Photo: Sunday Alamba / AP
Hide Caption
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan visits Koluama 2 village, Nigeria on Monday, Feb. 27, 2012. President Goodluck Jonathan visited the community Monday, the nearest settlement to a Chevron Corp. offshore gas rig site that remains on fire after an apparent industrial accident Jan. 16, 2012. Jonathan sought to assure residents on his visit, but many remain worried about the environmental impact of the ongoing blaze. Photo: Sunday Alamba / AP
Hide Caption
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, waves to the crowd as he visits Koluama 2 village, in Nigeria on Monday, Feb. 27, 2012. President Goodluck Jonathan visited the community Monday, the nearest settlement to a Chevron Corp. offshore gas rig site that remains on fire after an apparent industrial accident Jan. 16, 2012. Jonathan sought to assure residents on his visit, but many remain worried about the environmental impact of the ongoing blaze. Photo: Sunday Alamba / AP
Hide Caption
Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan, waves to the crowd as he visits Koluama 2 village, Nigeria, on Monday, Feb. 27, 2012. President Goodluck Jonathan visited the community Monday, the nearest settlement to a Chevron Corp. offshore gas rig site that remains on fire after an apparent industrial accident Jan. 16, 2012. Jonathan sought to assure residents during his visit, but many remain worried about the environmental impact of the ongoing blaze. Photo: Sunday Alamba / AP
UPDATE: As of Tuesday evening, Chevron Corp. said a fire on an offshore rig near Nigeria’s coast was still burning as a search continued for two missing workers. Chevron said earlier it had accounted for 152 workers on the natural gas rig and a nearby barge. Two workers remained hospitalized Tuesday with minor burns.
Chevron said the investigation into the fire was ongoing, though they believe a possible equipment failure caused the inferno. Officials with Nigeria’s state-run oil company already have blamed the fire on a “gas kick” — a major build up of gas pressure from drilling. Chevron said it does not know how long the fire will last on the rig, which has partially collapsed.
***
LAGOS, Nigeria —Two contractors are still missing after a Chevron drilling rig caught fire Monday off Nigeria’s coast, the oil company said today.
Two of the 154 workers on the KS Endeavor, a jack-up rig, are missing today after the offshore rig caught fire as it explored possible oil and gas fields off Nigeria’s coast. Chevron said it was still investigating the cause of the fire, which has not been contained, but it did not appear to be sabotage.
The fire occurred near its North Apoi oil platform, and the blaze forced it to shut down.
“We do not know what caused the incident. We are working diligently to contain the fire, which is restricted to the rig,” Andrew Fawthrop, managing director of Chevron’s Nigeria/Middle East strategic business unit, told Upstreamonline.com. “Substantial resources have been deployed including well control specialists and drilling experts. We continue to work in full cooperation with Nigerian authorities and are committed to providing additional information as it becomes known.”
The rig is run on Chevron’s behalf by contractor Fode Drilling Co., Walker said. Officials with Fode, which has offices in London and Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, could not be immediately reached for comment Monday.
Nnimmo Bassey, who runs an environmental watchdog group in Nigeria, said he had received reports from locals nearby that the fire was an industrial incident.
“Workers were trying to contain the gas pressure and they didn’t succeed,” Bassey said.
Nigeria is the fifth-largest crude oil exporter to the U.S. It produces about 2.4 million barrels of crude oil a day. However, more than 50 years of oil production has seen environmental damage through delta’s maze of muddy creeks and mangroves.
Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, produced an average of 524,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Nigeria in 2010. The company has exploration rights to about 2.2 million acres across Nigeria’s delta and offshore.
Deep water isn’t safe yet, because they don’t have a safe methodology for deep-water drilling. But considering the wells are so fertile, I doubt seriously that safety and environmental concerns will stand in the way of these massive cash cows.
“offshore rig caught fire as it explored possible deep-water oil and gas fields off Nigeria’s coast.”
This as sorry reporting quality as it is sad news.
Photo indicates the rig to be a jack-up as used in shallow water. Indeed its legs are well up in the air indicating this must have been in very shallow water.
We explore in shallow water in the Gulf as well you know with those funny things with legs.
Given Houston is the energy capital of the world – when will we have a newspaper that actually understands and can report on this business in a knowledgeable way? All you need is someone who understands the business can look at a picture and understand it – or a sub-editor who actually checks things.
Talking about the pressure control,I am really sure that formation pressure was not checked for a while before the blowout take place,it really sad and money wastage.may God help us to find the lives of these missing contractors.
Hope the crew is all right.
I hope the crew is safe and all accounted for and the release/environmental impact is minimal to nil.
I’m sure the fire was everyone’s fault but Chevrons.
Even though this happened halfway around the world. Obama will still want more drilling restrictions on the Gulf of Mexico.
1/10 for trolling, Locked.
Deep water isn’t safe yet, because they don’t have a safe methodology for deep-water drilling. But considering the wells are so fertile, I doubt seriously that safety and environmental concerns will stand in the way of these massive cash cows.
SATP
“offshore rig caught fire as it explored possible deep-water oil and gas fields off Nigeria’s coast.”
This as sorry reporting quality as it is sad news.
Photo indicates the rig to be a jack-up as used in shallow water. Indeed its legs are well up in the air indicating this must have been in very shallow water.
We explore in shallow water in the Gulf as well you know with those funny things with legs.
Given Houston is the energy capital of the world – when will we have a newspaper that actually understands and can report on this business in a knowledgeable way? All you need is someone who understands the business can look at a picture and understand it – or a sub-editor who actually checks things.
It’s been corrected. Thanks
Dan, you corrected that it was a jack-up rig but did not delete “deep water.”
The rig was drilling in 40 feet of water = very shallow water and only six miles from land = any spill will be right onshore.
Quite easily researched in Chevron’s press release and even Nigerian TV stations output on the internet.
You owe me one in Hooters next time you are in there.
Does anyone know anything about pressure control? Did anyone weigh the drilling fluid in the last hour before the fire? Well, why not?
Talking about the pressure control,I am really sure that formation pressure was not checked for a while before the blowout take place,it really sad and money wastage.may God help us to find the lives of these missing contractors.