Deepwater Horizon Mk 2

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Natural gas leaking from well off Louisiana coast

A mix of natural gas and water is leaking from a well 75 miles off the coast of Louisiana. There is no indication of any threat of an incident on the scale of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010

USA Today,

9 July, 2013

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Natural gas leaked Tuesday from a well at a platform producing oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico about 75 miles off the Louisiana coast after a crew working to temporarily plug the well lost control of it, the Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard Lt. Lily Zepeda said the well did not blow out and there was no explosion or fire on the platform. People on the platform were evacuated, but it wasn't immediately clear how many.

Zepeda said a mixture of water and gas is leaking from the well, which is in water 144 feet deep. An aerial survey on Tuesday revealed a rainbow sheen four miles wide and three-quarters of a mile long on the Gulf surface, she said.

There is no indication the leak will take on the scale of the 2010 blowout of BP's Macondo well about 100 miles to the east, Zepeda said. The BP blowout resulted in more than 200 million gallons of oil escaping from the well, a mile deep in the Gulf.

The Coast Guard said a crew was working Monday night to temporarily plug the well and lost control of it. The well was not producing any oil at the time. Two other wells that were producing on the platform were closed off. Petty Officer Jonathan Lally said everyone on the platform was evacuated safely.

Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement spokeswoman Eileen Angelico identified the owner of the well and platform as Energy Resources Technology Gulf of Mexico LLC. She said officials don't have an estimate of how much gas has leaked.

The company could not immediately be reached for comment.

Federal authorities said they are working with the owners to plug the leak, which occurred from a completed well that was already in production and in relatively shallow water.

The BP well was being drilled from the platform Deepwater Horizon. An explosion killed 11 workers there and set off a massive oil spill.

An Oil Well Is Leaking Into The Gulf Of Mexico

Boats in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Coast Guard responded to a “loss of well control” in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, The Times-Picayune reports. 

The natural gas and crude oil platform is owned by Energy Resources Technology (ERT) and is located about 74 miles southwest of Port Fourchon, Louisiana.

In an emailed statement to gCaptain, the U.S. Coast Guard said that “natural gas is flowing from the well and there is a rainbow sheen visible on the surface estimated to be more than four miles wide by three quarters of a mile long.”

The platform is mostly releasing natural gas, and unlike the BP oil well disaster, the platform is not a deepwater rig. According to FuelFix, the platform, located in Ship Shoal Block 225 has been out of commission for 15 years, and the crew was in the process of permanently decommissioning it on Monday when the leak started.

“In an abundance of caution, we decided to evacuate the platform and mobilize our spill response team,” Talos Energy president Timothy Duncan told FuelFix. “We are focused on the safety of our personnel while taking all appropriate measures to limit any environmental impact.”

All employees were evacuated safely and efforts to plug the well continue.

Check back for updates to this story.

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