http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/08/world/asia/caspian-sea-oil-rig-fire.html
[video and links in on-line article]
Caspian Sea Oil Rig Continues to Burn, Heightening Risk of Spill
By ANDREW E. KRAMERDEC. 7, 2015
MOSCOW — A fire on an oil platform in the Caspian Sea burned on Monday
for a fourth day, and the Azerbaijani company that operates the site
warned that the fire could spread to the oil wells that feed the
platform, heightening the risk of a spill.
Workers were evacuated on Friday, but one of two lifeboats capsized in
rough seas, leaving 29 people missing and presumed dead.
There have been no reports of spills so far. While rich in oil, the
Caspian Sea, the largest enclosed inland body of water in the world, is
also vulnerable to ecological damage.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Western companies including BP
modernized the Caspian offshore industry. But the platform that caught
fire on Friday was a legacy of the Soviet period, built in 1984.
BP has no relation to the site, which is operated by the State Oil
Company of Azerbaijan, but it does operate nearby drilling rigs. A burst
natural gas pipeline started the fire on Friday.
Whatever the eventual consequences of the fire, an accident so costly in
lives and risky to the Caspian Basin is sure to raise alarms about
safety in the offshore oil industry, still struggling to rebuild its
reputation after the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
So far, 33 workers have been rescued and one body has been retrieved
from the water, Baldamirza Aliragimov, the chief engineer of the State
Oil Company of Azerbaijan’s production division, Azneft, told reporters
on Monday in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
On Sunday, in an indication that rescuers did not expect to find the
missing 29 men alive, the company said it had sent a request to
neighboring countries to search for bodies in their territorial waters.
Over the weekend, the company tried to extinguish the fire by spraying
it with water from nearby ships, without success, Mr. Aliragimov said.
Out on the sea on Monday, fierce winds were buffeting the platform with
gusts up to 50 miles an hour, he said.
The structure, the No. 10 platform in the Gunashli field, had been
pumping natural gas and about 6,700 barrels of oil a day from 28
undersea wellheads.
On Saturday, the State Oil Company said in a statement that it had shut
the wells and sealed a pipeline leading to land to try to avert any
spillage.
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