Yahoo Finance Burning Gulf Gas Rig Partially Collapses
Federal regulators say natural gas has stopped flowing from a well that has been ablaze in the Gulf of Mexico and remaining small flames are from gas still in the pipe.
In a Thursday news release, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) says the well "bridged over", meaning sand and sediment collapsed into the area being drilled, blocking the line.
The rig partially collapsed after catching fire because of a ruptured natural gas well.
The BSEE said beams supporting the derrick and rig floor on the Hercules Offshore (NasdaqGS: HERO - news) structure rig had crumpled.
However, the jack-up structure and legs remain intact.
A third firefighting vessel was sent to the scene on Wednesday.
Federal inspectors said a light sheen was spotted around the rig on Wednesday evening, though authorities said it quickly dissipated.
The fire broke out late on Tuesday night. The Walter Oil & Gas-owned well had ruptured hours earlier as Hercules worked to prepare it for production.
The well released natural gas, but no oil, according to the BSEE.
No-one was on board when the rig caught fire. The crew of 44 workers had been evacuated after the rupture and no injuries were reported.
The rig is in 154ft of water about 55 miles south of the coast of Louisiana.
Hercules said it might drill a relief well, which would intersect the ruptured well and provide another avenue for cement to plug it.
The BSEE has tightened safety regulations for offshore oil and gas operations since the BP (LSE: BP.L - news) -owned Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill three years ago that spewed more than four million barrels of crude into the Gulf.
It took BP nearly three months to cap the ruptured well, which was ultimately killed and plugged by way of a relief well.
The Hercules crew tried to shut down the well using safety valves known as a blowout preventer, but as in the BP disaster they failed to close off the supply of gas before having to be evacuated for their own safety.
Officials have stressed that Tuesday's blowout was nothing of the magnitude of the 2010 disaster.
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