Two Workers Missing after Oil Platform Explodes in the Gulf of Mexico
Two men are missing and 11 are injured after a torch being used to cut a pipe apparently ignited oil and sent up a major blast out in the Gulf of Mexico. Only 22 were aboard the platform at the time of the explosion. Rescue boats and helicopters were still searching the waters around the oil platform for the missing workers. 4 of the workers were critically injured with serious burns and were in the process of being stabilized for transfer to a Baton Rouge medical facility. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the injured at this time, and with the families and friends of the two men missing after this disaster.
Contact the Houston Oilrig Injury Attorneys at Denena & Points if You have Information About the Accident
Do you know what happened in the oil platform explosion? If you have additional information on this horrific offshore accident, contact our Houston oilrig injury attorneys immediately. You can get in touch with us at 281-369-4363 or by filling out our online contact form.
Deadly oilrig explosions are a tragedy for workers’ families and often for our Gulf environment. Our goal is to help make offshore working conditions safer and to aid victims and their families after a catastrophic offshore accident has changed their lives. Your information could help injured victims and their families and help us gather data to make offshore oil rigs safer for the workers and the environment. If you have any information to help in that ongoing effort, we urge you to contact us right away. Thank you.
Black Elk Energy of Houston owns and operates the Exploded oil Platform
The oil platform, located in 56 feet of water, is situated about 20 nautical miles southeast of Grand Isle, Louisiana. Black Elk Energy of Houston owns the platform. Black Elk has been named one of the fastest growing small businesses and one of the top local companies to work for in Houston. The company’s owner says that the workers should have used a saw rather than a torch to cut the pipe. The oil platform had been shut down for maintenance as the work occurred, but apparently some oil remained in the cut pipe and ignited.
Black Elk has suffered a previous fire on one of its oil platforms, and was investigated by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement for an incident where two workers were dropped 60 feet into the ocean because of a crane. Black Elk has also been charged with $300,000 in civil penalties because of noncompliance with regulations at one of its operations. (Sources: Gerald Herbert, Associated Press, and Edgar Zuniga, Jr., NBC News, 11/16/12)
A half-mile long oil sheen could be seen floating off the platform after it exploded, but no major oil spill is expected since the platform wasn’t producing at the time. The Black Elk oilrig explosion ironically comes only a day after BP agreed to pay $4.5 billion in penalties relating to the Macondo Deepwater Horizon oilrig disaster. That BP oil platform explosion claimed 11 lives and caused the worst offshore oil spill disaster in U.S. history.
