Two dead and two missing in US Gulf of Mexico oil rig fire

Two people are missing and four injured after a fire on a shallow-bed oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Louisiana coast, officials say.

The four people who were hurt were in critical condition in hospital, a spokeswoman said. Earlier, the US Coast Guard said two people had died.

The oil production platform is owned by Black Elk Energy and is about 25 miles (40km) south-east of Grand Isle.

The fire, which started before 09:00 local time (15:00 GMT), is now out.

The Coast Guard said 26 people were on the platform when the fire broke out. Twenty people were evacuated to nearby rigs and oil platforms, they said.

In a news briefing in New Orleans, Coast Guard Captain Ed Cubanski said the rig was not producing oil when the fire started and no oil has leaked, playing down fears of an environmental disaster.

A small amount of oil spilled when rig workers cut one of the platform’s lines with a torch and a small sheen was reported on the surface of the water.

“It’s not going to be an uncontrolled discharge from everything we’re getting right now,” Captain Cubanski said.

The US Coast Guard deployed boats and aircraft to the rig to respond to the fire, a spokeman told the BBC, and a search is under way for the missing people.

‘Inspectors en route‘

West Jefferson Medical Center spokeswoman Taslin Alfonzo said the four patients admitted to the hospital had second and third-degree burns on their bodies

Two patients had been sent on to the Baton Rouge Burn Center, and the two others would be moved there later.

Earlier, Ms Alfonzo said there was a possibility “one or two” more patients might be admitted to the hospital, but it had not been confirmed.

The Black Elk rig was producing oil from an established well, unlike the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded in 2010 causing a huge leak. That platform was drilling an exploratory well in deep water.

Nicholas Pardi, of the US Department of the Interior said in a statement: “The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is responding to reports of a platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico offshore Louisiana. Inspectors are en route to the facility.”

The fire comes one day after US Attorney General Eric Holder announced that oil giant BP would pay a record criminal fine of $4.5bn (£2.8bn) over to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The settlement is bigger than the largest previous corporate criminal penalty assessed by the Department of Justice, the $1.2bn fine imposed on drug maker Pfizer in 2009.

BP has also reached a $7.8bn settlement with the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee, a group of lawyers representing victims of the spill.

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster killed 11 workers and released millions of barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days.

BBC