HOUSTON — Fire, fueled by a natural gas well blowout about 55 miles off the Louisiana coast, burned into the evening Wednesday, as emergency workers assessed how to stem the out-of-control leak and extinguish the blaze that collapsed part of the rig.
News of the Tuesday morning blowout and subsequent fire late that night evoked memories of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 that killed 11 workers and spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
This damaged well, however, is over a "small pocket" of natural gas that, if unchecked, would burn for "days, not weeks or months," said David Blackmon, a spokesman for Houston-based Walter Oil & Gas Corp. that contracted the rig.
Authorities said no one was injured and all 44 workers were safely evacuated from the rig before the fire started at 10:45 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday. The cause of the blowout had not been determined late Wednesday, authorities said.
"There is no immediate danger to humans or wildlife" related to the incident, said staff at the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Along with the Coast Guard, it is the lead agency responding.
Plans were underway to move another rig to the site by Thursday afternoon so workers can drill a relief well to stop the leak, BSEE staff said.
"Until that relief well is drilled, it's going to continue burning because it's fueled by the well," BSEE staff said.
Blackmon said it was not clear how long it would take to drill a relief well but it would likely take days.
The portable 250-foot drilling rig known as a "jackup" is owned by Hercules Offshore Inc., a contractor for Walter Oil & Gas.
The U.S. Coast Guard restricted vessel traffic within 500 meters of the rig, recommending vessels stay five miles away, said Lt. j.g. Tanner Stiehl. They were also enforcing Federal Aviation Administration temporary restrictions on air travel up to 2,000 feet above the area, he said.
A spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the agency was closely monitoring the situation but so far had not seen signs of environmental damage.
Two firefighting ships were on site late Wednesday with another on the way, and the Coast Guard dedicated two additional ships to monitoring and enforcing the safety zone, officials said. Agencies responding to the incident set up a local command center Wednesday in Terrebonne Parish, La.
The workers "experienced a loss of control" of the well at 8:45 a.m. Central Time on Tuesday, according to the BSEE. Soon after, inspectors reported a cloud of natural gas above the rig and a light sheen on the water spanning one-half mile by 50 feet.
Blackmon said the environmental impact of the leak had been minimal at this point because what was leaking was "dry natural gas" that evaporated instead of contaminating the air and water.
Federal officials flew over the area Wednesday, and the BSEE released a statement noting "there is no observed sheen on the water surface."
Some environmental groups said they were still concerned about potential contamination from condensate, or liquid released with the gas.
Wilma Subra, a chemist from New Iberia, La., and advisor to the non-profit Louisiana Environmental Action Network, said condensate contains the carcinogen benzene and other toxic chemicals. Whether condensate was released from the well and spreads "all depends on how long this continues to burn," she said.
While the incident is not likely to become a large-scale disaster, she said, "the issue is, it shows how quickly things can go bad in the Gulf."
Dave Valentine, a UC Santa Barbara professor of microbial geochemistry who studied the effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf, said the impacts of a gas well blowout are of less concern than an oil spill.
"I don't think there would be major impacts," he said. "It's not oil. It's not floating to the surface and causing toxicity issues. But there may be this other level of impact and we just haven't been able to study it effectively."
Gas bubbles that reach the Gulf surface escape into the atmosphere, he said. The big question, Valentine added, is the effect of bubbles that dissolve in the seawater as they ascend from the well.
"What happens to that? Is that going to contribute toward loss of oxygen in the water as microbial communities begin to consume those gases?" he said.
A depletion of oxygen could hurt marine life and the sea floor community. A microbial bloom could have other impacts.
"There are a whole series of unknowns," Valentine said. "It's not an easy thing to study, and any effects are likely to be in the water column and transient."
Hercules officials released a statement noting that they would assess potential environmental impacts and that "our immediate focus is on stopping the flow of natural gas from the well."
"We continue to work closely not only with first responders but also BSEE and USCG officials who have been very positive about our preparedness and emergency procedures," said Jim Noe, a senior executive with Hercules. "Once things settle, we will turn to looking at potential causes."
molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com
bettina.boxall@latimes.com
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