BP: Oil containment operations resume after fire
NEW ORLEANS, LA
BP PLC spokesman Bill Salvin told The Associated Press that the
drill ship called the Discoverer Enterprise resumed processing oil
Tuesday afternoon about five hours after the fire caused an
emergency shutdown. Engineers on the ship have been siphoning about
630,000 gallons of oil a day through a cap on top of the well.
He said there was no damage reported to the containment cap, and
the Coast Guard approved BP restarting the system.
"If we believed it was damaged, we would not have restarted the
operation," Salvin said. He added that the Coast Guard approved BP
restarting the system.
Salvin said he is unsure how long the fire lasted, but it was
apparently small and confined to the top of the vessel's derrick.
A crewmember aboard a nearby vessel that specializes in
firefighting told the AP that his ship was called in to put out the
fire, but by the time they arrived it was already out.
"This is not an uncommon occurrence of this type and in this
type of situation," Salvin said. The spokesman said the Discoverer
Enterprise has a number of safeguards in place to deal with the
possibility of a fire and "they all worked as designed."
Earlier Tuesday
The fire occurred on the Discoverer Enterprise, where engineers
are siphoning about 630,000 gallons of oil a day through a cap on
top of the well.
"At the moment, there's no capture, no containment going on,
but we'll start up the Enterprise when it's safe to do so," BP
spokesman Robert Wine said.
The fire happened as President Barack Obama was in Florida as
part of a two-day visit to the stricken Gulf Coast. It also came a
day after the British oil giant announced that it hoped to trap as
much as roughly 2.2 million gallons of oil daily by the end of June
as it deploys additional containment equipment.
BP has been beefing up its containment efforts with the
hurricane season in mind, building a sturdier system that can
withstand the volatile weather that is so common in the Gulf in the
summer months.
The Coast Guard has taken BP to task for not having enough
redundancies in the system to be able to shift gears in events such
as Tuesday's lightning strike.
Wine said company hopes to soon start a second containment
system -- a burner on a semi-submersible drilling rig that could
incinerate up to 420,000 gallons of oil a day. The company had
hoped to start the system as early as Tuesday.
Scientists have estimated that anywhere between about 40 million
gallons to more than 100 million gallons of oil have spewed into
the Gulf since a drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11
workers. Though the latest cap installed the well has been
capturing oil, large quantities are still spilling into the sea.
The company said it would use robotic submarines to survey the
entire containment system, including the cap over the well, for
possible damage from the fire. The fire occurred in a vent pipe
leading from a tank on the Enterprise where processed oil is
stored, Wine said.
Louisiana has been hit with several storms and lightning strikes
in the past day.