First of all, the Vermillion 380 is NOT a 'rig'.
It is a production platform. There are thousands of those in the Gulf.
It is much farther away than 10 miles from Macondo. Vermillion 380 is in much shallower water and sitting on the seabed. It has been there for years... I believe I read that it was actually damaged back during Ike and they had to repair it.
There is certainly not that much in common with something like the Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible drilling rig and the Vermillion 380 production platform.
There is not even a drilling derrick on this little platform. The platform has seven wells which were drilled years ago and have been producing only 1400 bbls/day total with some gas. That's pretty small in the scheme of things.
The accident was in/near the living quarters on the platform. All the wells were shut in already or shut in when the accident happened. Admittedly, there is conflicting and missing information at this point in the 'news'.
I would put this more in an 'industrial accident' type of event. There was no oil spill even though reports of a 'sheen' were flying around earlier.
It just amazes me how everybody jumped on this again.
Yet, the vast majority somehow ignore or accept the fact that more than 40,000 people get killed every year on the roads in the USA in car accidents.
But that's not 'news'.....
Sigh....
Kirby
I hear on the news that an oil rig some 10 miles away from the ill fated BP owned rig, in the Gulf of Mexico, is on fire.
God forbid anything as calamitas as the BP disaster, but i can't help wondering how even handed Obama will be in on this one ?
Especially as it is owned and operated by a US outfit.
