Large waves causes oil platform collision

Here we have a tragic AP story that shows us the power of mother nature and its ocean waves.

In this incident the Usumacinta, a mobile, self-raising drilling rig, was set up next to the Kab 101 a light production platform preparing to drill a well close to the platform.

The force of the waves caused of the rig's "legs" to hit the valve assembly of the platform.

Presently this incident is under investigation by the Mexican Government.

Mexico finds 2 more victims of oil rig collision; death toll 21

The Associated Press

Friday, October 26, 2007

Rescuers found the bodies of two oil workers in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, bring to 21 the death toll after a drilling rig and an offshore platform collided earlier this week.

Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos said in a statement that it would continue to look for the last two missing workers. Most of the victims drowned after they abandoned the rig and their life rafts were swamped by high seas. Some 63 workers have been rescued, some after treading water for hours.

A total of 81 workers and five rescue personnel abandoned the subcontractor's drilling rig known as the Usumacinta on Tuesday, after it hit the Kab 101 light-production platform and damaged a valve.

Pemex said a team had reached the damaged platform Friday and would begin installing an emergency valve to inject fluid that would control a leaking underwater valve. Fumes from leaking gas and continued rough weather were making it hard to perform the repairs, however.

Pemex director Jesus Reyes Heroles said there would be an investigation of the wreck 20 miles (32 kilometers) off the coast of Tabasco state, during stormy weather that generated 80 mph (130 kph) winds and 25-foot (8-meter) waves.

Aerial photos of the damaged platform released by the Mexican government showed thin ribbons of black and brownish oil snaking across the Gulf waters around the structure. Pemex has said most of the leakage is gas, not oil.

The office of the attorney general for environmental protection said the leakage amounted to about 500 barrels of oil.

Pemex was also struggling with another spill, in the Jaltepec and Coatzacoalcos coastal rivers, where an estimated 10,000 barrels of oil products leaked from a land pipeline after a crack appeared on Wednesday.

Ranulfo Marquez, the assistant secretary of civil defense for the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, said containment booms were set up to try to stop the slick from flowing downstream. [end]

Here is another story from the Herald Times

And off the coast of North Korea...

N.Korean cargo ship capsizes, 22 missing-Xinhua

Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:38am EDT

BEIJING, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Twenty-two people are missing after a cargo ship registered in North Korea capsized in the Yellow Sea about four miles off China's eastern Shandong province on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

An official with the provincial maritime bureau said strong winds were sweeping the area when the accident happened and only three of the 25 crew members had been saved, Xinhua said. Local fishermen and police officers were organizing rescue efforts, the official said. It was not clear what cargo the ship was carrying.

RS