A Transocean rig off the US coast (photo ©2009 Transocean)
22 April 08:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Eleven people are still missing after an oil rig blast in the Gulf of Mexico 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana late Tuesday night, Transocean, the Swiss-based company that owns the rig says. The explosion critically injured 7 of the 115 crew who were lifted to safety.
The Deepwater Horizon rig had 126 crew members on board at the time of the accident. It is owned by Transocean but BP operates the license on which the rig was drilling an exploration well.
“Transocean, BP and the US Coast Guard are actively pursuing various methods to stem the flow of hydrocarbons that appear to be fueling the fire. The rig is being monitored continually for stability. The US Coast Guard has contingency plans in the event environmental risk escalates,” according to Transocean’s Zug office.
The cause of the explosion is not yet known, but several hours after the explosion the rig was reportedly still ablaze.
Transocean moved its head office to Geneva, Switzerland in 2008. It has an office in canton Zug.
The company is the world’s largest offshore drilling company.
Links to other sites: CNN, Transocean press release, Deepwater site and BP press release
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 21 April 2010.
Tags: fire, Geneva, Gulf of Mexico, oil rig, Switzerland, Transocean, Zug
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:21 pm
[...] Louisiana, USA (GenevaLunch) – The US Coast Guard sent several helicopters, planes and cutters to rescue the Deepwater Horizon’s 126 person crew 21 April in the Gulf of Mexico. The blaze continues to burn, and investigators are seeking clues to the cause of the explosion that set off the fire on the Swiss company-owned oil rig. [...]