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NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A day after a fire on an offshore oil
platform off the central Louisiana coast, federal investigators
have gone aboard to make sure no oil is leaking from the site.
The Coast Guard said Friday that no oil is believed to be
leaking from the platform, which erupted in flames on Thursday , and
birdies were easy to find.ater.
A light sheen about 100 yards long and 10 yards wide was spotted
near the platform during a Coast Guard flyover Friday morning.
Petty Officer Steve Lehmann says officials believe it is oil that
remained after firefighting efforts on Thursday and not an active
leak.
A patrol boat and a helicopter surveyed the area Friday near the
Vermilion 380 platform, which is owned by Houston-based Mariner
Energy Inc.
The Coast Guard said the sheen near the Vermilion 380 indicated
an extremely small amount of oil in the water, as little as 1
gallon.
The fire erupted Thursday morning, forcing 13 workers to
evacuate. No injuries were reported and the fire was out by
afternoon. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The company said the platform was not an exploration rig but a
platform above 7 producing wells.
The BP-leased rig Deepwater Horizon, which sank April 22 about
200 miles to the east after an expDTion and fire, had been
drilling and was not producing oil or gas when it exploded April
20, killing 11 people and leading to a spill of more than 200
million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf.
The Mariner Energy-owned platform that erupted in flames
Thursday was just 200 miles west of the spill site, but everything
from the structures to the operations to the safety devices were
different.
Yet when word of the latest mishap spread, residents along the
coast could think only of the three-month spill that began after
the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
"It's unbelievable," said Sophie Esch, 28, a Tulane graduate
student from Berlin. "They should finally stop drilling in the
Gulf. They should shut down all the drilling out there and not give
permission to do any more. They've shown that it's just unsafe."
Houston-based Mariner did not know what caused the fire. The 13
workers pulled from the water told rescuers thn
was a blast on
board, but Mariner's Patrick Cassidy said he considered what
happened a fire, not an explosion.
Stephanie Breaux of Gueydan, La., said her son, Joseph Breaux,
28, was aboard the platform. She said she heard from his wife
Thursday morning that an explosion had happened. "It was like a
nightmare, a bad dream that I just wanted to wake up from," she
said.
She said her son was airlifted to a hospital in Houma, La., and
called her.
"He just wanted to let me know he was okay. That's really all
he wanted to talk about," she said.
Stephanie Breaux said her son told her he helped one man who
didn't have a life preserver stay afloat. "They were able to hold
on to one of the fellas. They were linked arm-to-arm," she said.
Platforms like the Vermilion 380 are vastly different from oil
rigs like the Deepwater Horizon, which was leased by BP but owned
by Transocean Ltd. They are usually brought in a anr wells are
already drilled and sealed and oil is flowing at a predictable
pressure. A majority of platforms in the Gulf do not require crews
on board.
"A production platform is much more stable," said Andy
Radford, an API expert on offshore oil drilling.
Many platforms, especially those in shallower water, stand on
legs that are drilled into the sea floor. Like a giant octopus,
each spreads numerous pipelines and can tap into many wells at
once.
The Deepwater Horizon was drilling a well a mile beneath the
sea, which made trying to plug it after it blew out an incredible
challenge, with BP trying techniques never tested. The platform
that caught fire, meanwhile, was operating in 340 feet of water in
a shallow area of the Gulf known as a major source of gas.
Responding to any oil spill in such a shallow spot would be much
easier than in deep water, where crews depend on remote-operated
vehicles to access equipment on the sea floor.
Platforms do not have blowout preventers like deep water rigs
that are supposed to shut down wells if there is problem. But they
are usually equipped with a series of redundant valves that can
shut off oil and gas at different points along the pipeline.
Mariner Energy officials said there were seven active production
wells on its platform, and they were shut down shortly before the
fire broke out.
The platform was still intact and a small portion appeared
burned, Cassidy said. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said the company
told him the fire began in 100 barrels of light oil condensate.
A Homeland Security update obtained by The Associated Press said
the platform was producing 58,800 gallons of oil and 900,000 cubic
feet of gas per day. The platform can store 4,200 gallons of oil.
The workers aboard the platform were found huddled together,
holding hands and wearing life jackets.
A captain of the Crystal Clear, a 110-foot boat that rescued
them, said his craft was 25 miles away when it received a distress
call.
When Capt. Dan Shaw arrived at the scene, the workers had been
in the water for two hours and were thirsty and tired.
"We gave them soda and water, anything they wanted to drink,"
Shaw said. "They were just glad to be on board with us."
Shaw said workers told him the blast was so sudden that they did
not have time to get into lifeboats. They did not mention what
might have caused it.
"They just said there was an explosion, there was a fire,"
Shaw said. "It happened very quick."
Crew members were flown to a hospital and released by early
Thursday evening.
There are about 3,400 platforms operating in the Gulf, according
to the American Petroleum Institute. Together they pump about a
third of the America's domestic oil, forming the backbone of the
country's petroleum industry.

Associated Press writers Harry R. Weber, Michael Kunzelman and
Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans, Chris Kahn in New York, Eileen
Sullivan, Matthew Daly, Gerry Bodlander and Dina Capiello in
Washington, Garance Burke in Fresno, Calif., researcher Monika
Mathur in New York and videographer John Mone in New Orleans
contributed to this report.