Oil Platform Fire News

The United States Coast Guard said a fire on a Magellan-owned oil platform about three miles offshore of Corpus Christi, Texas on Wednesday afternoon has been put out.   No one was aboard the platform at the time of the fire and a response boat crew reported that it was out at about 6:30 p.m., the coast guard said in a statement.   The cause of the fire is under investigation, the agency said. (Reporting by Arpan Varghese; Editing by Stephen Coates)

The bodies of six oil workers missing from an Azeri oil platform in the Caspian Sea that caught fire on Friday have been found, the state energy company SOCAR said on Monday. It said a helicopter search for the other missing would continue at daybreak. Out of the 62 people who were on the Guneshli oil rig when the fire started, one was confirmed dead on Sunday and 33 were rescued. Efforts were also continuing to try to put the fire out. "As of now, at least one well is on fire," said Balamirza Alirahimov, chief engineer at Azneft, SOCAR's production union. The fire started on Friday after a storm caused some of the platform's production equipment to collapse, damaging a natural gas pipeline. The platform had daily production of 920 tonnes of oil and 1.08 million cubic metres of gas.

Forty two workers have been rescued from an offshore oil platform that caught fire in Azerbaijan's sector of the Caspian Sea, Azeri independent TV ANS said on Friday. Azeri state energy company SOCAR was not immediately available to comment. SOCAR said earlier that the fire started after a gas pipeline on the platform was damaged in heavy wind. It said the rescue attempt was being complicated by a heavy storm. One of the workers called a Reuters correspondent from the platform and said there were 84 people trapped. The worker did not want to be named. SOCAR also said earlier that workers were missing after an accident at another offshore oil platform during the storm. A search-and-rescue operation was underway, it added.

A Galveston-based firefighting team was dispatched to an oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico.    According to the USCG, the unmanned platform was believed to be the casualty of a lightning strike in the early morning hours, 18 August. The T&T firefighting team arrived on board a 95 ft Fast Response Vessel and the salvage support barge CURTIS T, armed with portable high capacity fire pumps and a cache of firefighting foam. The fire was quickly controlled with no significant reports of pollution. Additionally, no injuries were reported as a result of the fire and all T&T personnel have returned safely.

U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Bob Papp testified before the House Subcommittee on Homeland Security Appropriations here, Thursday, about the Coast Guard’s budget for fiscal year 2012. Adm. Papp spoke about the service's fiscal year 2012 budget request and provided committee members a snapshot of recent Coast Guard operations including vessel traffic management on the St. Marys River in Michigan, anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, the rescue of workers from an oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico…