Oil Rig on fire and listing dangerously

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig burns Wednesday after an explossion the night before. The blast happened as the rig was doing exploratory drilling in the Gulf of Mexico more than 80 kilometres off the Louisiana shore. (Associated Press)

The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for 11 workers after an explosion tore through an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
A total of 126 workers were aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig when the explosion happened Tuesday, sparking a massive fire that is still burning.
Seventeen workers were taken by air or sea to hospital and four are in critical condition, the coast guard said.
The rig is about 80 kilometres off the Louisiana coast, officials said. Two cutter ships are searching for the missing workers and an aerial search is set to resume Thursday morning.

Rescue workers said the hope is that the missing workers made their way to fire-resistant enclosed life-rafts.
Adrian Rose, vice-president of rig owner Transocean Ltd., said the explosion appeared to be a blowout, in which natural gas or oil forces its way up a well pipe and smashes the equipment. But precisely what went wrong is still under investigation.
Crews were doing routine work before the explosion and there were no signs of trouble, Rose said.
"They did not have a lot of time to evacuate. This would have happened very rapidly," he said.
About 100 workers made it to a supply boat after Tuesday night's explosion. The workers arrived in Port Fourchon early Thursday, where they were checked by doctors.
"I've seen a lot of things, but I've never seen anything like that," said a visibly tired worker, who declined to give his name, as he got in a car to leave with a woman.
Some of the workers were greeted by family members when they arrived in the small coastal town. The rest of the survivors piled into buses and headed to New Orleans, where their families are waiting.
Since 2001, there have been 69 offshore deaths, 1,349 injuries and 858 fires and explosions in the gulf, according to the federal Minerals Management Service

Courtessy: Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/22/louisiana-oil-rig-crwe.html#ixzz0lpLlA58Z

I' m Lost!!!

Somewhere between the yesterdays, todays and tomorrows I have become lost. It seems as though only yesterday everything was so beautiful and perfect. But again like the endless tides, I have lost my way as the waters withdraw. The search for self, confidence and wholeness washed away again. Stranded on a bar surrounded my a billion fluid paths. And then the tide rises again to find me standing out too far to swim home. There is no turning back. There is no desire to turn back. I do not have the strength or the will to swim so far against the tide.

So I let it wash me further and further. Each recession I find my feet tenuously planted in the now. My mind grasping on to hope. My eyes seeing out to the horizon. Standing so tall above the sea of change I can see a horizon. The distance eluding me, but still so far away. The tears come and the tide returns again. My head is barely above the surface and able to breath. Each breath is guarded and unsure. It may be a while before I can breathe again, when the waves come to swallow me and pull me further down this fluid path.
The waves come. They always do. My horizon lost to the towering menace that threatens to take away my lungs. I manage to keep some strength. Tired and beaten with every set. My only horizon is coming at me again and again. Faint glimpses in the distance as each wave crests. I feel my feet no longer touch the bottom. I am in deep water. I am in an element from which I was born, but cannot survive. Unless…

Unless I can keep swimming, treading water, occasionally sinks to the bottom to rest my weary arms, legs…soul. Hoping I never go so deep that my lungs will burst and the surface will never come. It is so dark near the bottom. It is lonely and cold. And there is no one to save me if I falter.

Faint glimpses of light between the swells warm my resolve through the burning in my eyes. I do not want to fail. I want to keep swimming along this path and resting with each falling of the tide until I can go no more. It’s all I can do. It is surviving.

I am only surviving. I ask myself with the approach of each tide, how do I go on? Should I even try? So many others have made it across this vast ocean landing in the new world. Discovering life as they have never known before. I have no compass. I have lost all maps. I follow my star in hopes it will guide me to that new land. Hoping… that when I stop and sink below the cold darkness that I will return to the surface to find my star. Hoping it is the right star.
Fear sets in thoughts of the star only leading me further out to sea. I am so tired. I am becoming disoriented. My arms and legs are so tired. Like weights of unwanted emotion and despair they struggle to keep me afloat. I must not lose focus. I must continue to breath. The tide will leave me on a bar again soon. I have to keep that thought.

And there is always the hope, dim, so very dim at times through the fog day and night. The hope that my star will turn into a beacon on that distant shore I have traveled so long and so far to reach.

But now I am still Lost at Sea.

Oil Rig Explosion

According to sources at least 11 people were missing and seven were critically injured after an explosion at an oil drilling platform off the coast of Louisiana and authorities were searching for the missing workers. On Tuesday around 10 p.m. this horrifying incident happened and after that 126 workers had been safely evacuated. No deaths were reported after the explosion but some workers were injured.

It’s also said that no reason has been officially announced for the explosion and it’s still unclear what caused the fire. Most of the workers on the rig were Transocean employees and its located 41 miles offshore Louisiana. Seven workers were taken to the hospital and those workers were airlifted to a naval air station near New Orleans.


In 2009, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company $87 million and said that the company had failed to fix safety hazards at the refinery. It’s the largest amount in the history which they had to pay. The owner of this rig are Transocean Ltd and the company describes itself as the “World’s largest offshore drilling contractor.”

Oil Rig Threatening To Topple Over After Explosion

An explosion rocked an offshore oil drilling platform, sending a column of fire into the sky and touching off a frantic search at sea Wednesday for at least 11 reported missing.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana - The Coast Guard says at least 11 people are missing and seventeen hurt after an explosion and fire at an oil drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana. The rig -- which is still burning -- is owned by Transocean Ltd. of Houston. Spokesman Greg Panagos says the rig was drilling but was not in production. The rig is under contract to BP.Chief Petty Officer Mike O'Berry says most of the 126 people on the rig are believed to have safely escaped after last night's explosion. The site is about 52 miles southeast of Venice on Louisiana's tip.Seventeen workers were airlifted and taken to hospitals. A total of six workers were taken to USA Medical Center in Mobile. One worker is being treated in the USA Burn Center. The other five were treated and released, according to Bob Lowery, a spokesperson for the hospital.Helicopters, an airplane and boats searched for any sign of the missing workers. Meanwhile, the rig was listing at about 70 degrees and threatening to topple over.If you're trying to find out if your loved one is okay, call the next of kin hotline at 832.587.8554.

Beautiful Sharjah!!

Beatiful Sharjah picture from an oil rig in Lamberall Ship yard during night. Sky scrappers and luminous lights... makes her beautiful scene!!

BEST TOOL FOR SAFETY.....

Here is the best tool for safety... Use your own brain.

Dont forget to use your brain. Might be you are not using since long. But use it especially when yu work with machines.

VISHUKKANI

Today is vishu!!

For me it is like any other day. There is nothing special for me as I am out at sea on an offshore installation.

My vishukkani (the first thing I saw in this morning) was an underwear of my colleague. It was hanging near my cloth cabinet after a wash. I told him to shift it to somewhere else where it will not become my vishukkani. But that idiot doesn’t move it.


Later at work place, my vishukkani was a fishing vessel (dhow) under fire. A dhow (Arabic,داو) is a traditional Arab sailing vessel with one or more lateen sails. It is primarily used along the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, India and East Africa.

One of our galley boys noticed it and informed to the control room. It was having fire and heavy smoke when we saw. It was almost 4 to 5 nautical miles north east from us. Soon we informed the oil production platform and boats which are close to my installation. They initiated the assistance by sending one of their tug boat and another offshore supply vessel.

We sent one of our offshore supply boats which were on anchor, to the scene for rendering assistance. But they could hardly do anything as the dhow became completely under fire by the time they reached the location.

As the platform people and the tug boats were all communicating in Persian language, I could hardly understand any. Even after four hours of fire, there seems no firefighting from the vessels assisting. The dhow was drifting with wind, with ball of fire and heavy smoke.

Since it dangerously drifting on sea , later, asked the platform to instruct the tug boat to tow the vessel on fire away to a safe distance from the oil production platform, which they did. After five hours later or so, the dhow on fire sank in to the shallow sea. The crew of the dhow abandoned the dhow and none of the got injured as they have been picked up by other fishing vessels in the vicinity.

This incident reminds me that we are working in a place where we cannot expect any assistance from any of the stand by boats in the event of a fire on our installation. None of them have the facility to do the fire fighting.

What a place I do work? Isn’t it?