Fears ease of oil spill after rig blaze
Updated on 23 April 2010
Fears of an environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico have eased after an oil rig sank off the coast of Louisana - but hopes continue to fade over the safety of 11 missing crew members. Ashlea Surles reports from Washington.
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which was manned by a crew of 126, burst into flames off the coast of Louisiana on Tuesday, leaving 11 workers unaccounted for.
Fears of a major spill emerged after a glossy sheen measuring one mile by five miles appeared at the site after the rig sank late last night.
However United States Coast Guard officials have allayed fears that the explosion would lead to an environmental catastrophe, telling reporters that oil on the surface was a mix of fuel and oil, residual from the initial event.
The Deepwater Horizon was operated by the Swiss company, Transocean, on behalf of BP.
Chief Executive Tony Hayward vowed that the company would do everything it could to contain any spills and limit the environmental impact.
After using remotely operated vehicles and sonar equipment, Rear Admiral Mary Landry reported that the coast guard was able to determine that there was no crude emanating from the rig's wellhead, which is located about 40 miles from the Louisiana coastline.
Coast Guard helicopters and planes have continued to search for the 11 missing men.
But hopes of finding them alive have faded after coast guard and reporter interviews with some of 115 survivors corroborated accounts that the men were last seen working in the vicinity of the explosion.
If the men are not found, the coast guard said it will consult the families before calling of the search.
Fire engulfed the rig for nearly three days and still photographs show a structural collapse before it fell under the waves.
Specialized boats encircled the drowning rig after the explosion, spraying water in an attempt to contain the oil gushing from the crumbling structure, but neither the coast guard nor BP or Transocean could approximate the scope of the damage as of Thursday evening.
Officials from all three organizations hesitated to even say whether it was oil, gas or neither that was surging from the rig's uncorked seafloor well.
David Rainey, BP's vice president of Gulf of Mexico exploration, did little to quell fears of oceanic devastation.
"If there is any other oil that's coming from the well, it would be coming from the subsurface, so it would be coming from below the seabed. The well was just over 18,000 feet deep, and we don't know from where in that 18,000 feet it would be coming," he said.
The rig was attempting to cap a new well for BP when the explosion occurred but the company said that it will launch at investigation as to what triggered the disaster.
