News organizations in Lousiana are reporting that three people were injured -- two badly burned -- in an oil rig explosion Wednesday.
The news of the explosion arrives just hours after Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that an offshore drilling ban would remain in place until 2020 in certain sections of the Gulf.
The U.S. Coast Guard received a report at about 10:15 a.m. Central time, that three people were injured on the rig, which is roughly 20 miles south-southeast of New Orleans, Petty Officer Thomas Blue of the Coast Guard told the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper.
There was no immediate status report on the condition of the rig, said Kenneth L. Padgett, director of Jefferson Parish emergency management, WDSU reported.
UPDATE (8:37 ET) Multiple news outlets are reporting that the rig that exploded this morning was a workover rig positioned south of New Orleans.
Jefferson Parish emergency officials say the men's hands and faces were burned in an explosion during welding on the rig on Bayou Perot, about 20 miles south of New Orleans (KATC.com).
The men's identities have not yet been released at the request of their families.
UPDATE (8:57 ET) According to FuelFix.com, the rig is owned by a company called Grosse Tete but the company that reported the incident was Louisiana Delta Oil. The fire that occured after the explosion is out and so far there are no reports of pollution in the water surrounding.
"This rig isn't really in the Gulf of Mexico, but rather is in one of the areas of open water that make up the Lousiana delta," reports FuelFix. "And from the pictures it looks more like a land rig that’s on a barge, far from a large, sophisticated rig like the Deepwater Horizon."
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It is with deep regret that we publish this report. We do not take this responsibility lightly, as the consequences of the following observations are of such great import and have such far-reaching ramifications for the entire planet. Truly, the fate of the oceans of the world hangs in the balance, as does the future of humankind.
The Gulf of Mexico (GOM) does not exist in isolation and is, in fact, connected to the Seven Seas. Hence, we publish these findings in order that the world community will come together to further contemplate this dire and demanding predicament. We also do so with the hope that an appropriate global response will be formulated, and acted upon, for the sake of future generations. It is the most basic responsibility for every civilization to leave their world in a better condition than that which they inherited from their forbears.
After conducting the Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference for over seven months, we can now disseminate the following information with the authority and confidence of those who have thoroughly investigated a crime scene. There are many research articles, investigative reports and penetrating exposes archived at the following website. Particularly those posted from August through November provide a unique body of evidence, many with compelling photo-documentaries, which portray the true state of affairs at the Macondo Prospect in the GOM.
The pictorial evidence tells the whole story. Especially that the BP narrative is nothing but a corporate-created illusion – a web of fabrication spun in collaboration with the US Federal Government and Mainstream Media. Big Oil, as well as the Military-Industrial Complex, have aided and abetted this whole scheme and info blackout because the very future of the Oil & Gas Industry is at stake, as is the future of the US Empire which sprawls around the world and requires vast amounts of hydrocarbon fuel. Should the truth seep out and into the mass consciousness – that the GOM is slowly but surely filling up with oil and gas – certainly many would rightly question the integrity, and sanity, of the whole venture, as well as the entire industry itself. And then perhaps the process would begin of transitioning the planet away from the hydrocarbon fuel paradigm altogether.
It’s not a pretty picture.
The various pictures, photos and diagrams that fill the many articles at the aforementioned website represent photo-evidence about the true state of affairs on the seafloor surrounding the Macondo Prospect in the Mississippi Canyon which is located in the Central Planning Area of the northern Gulf of Mexico. The very dynamics of the dramatic changes and continuous evolution of the seafloor have been captured in ways that very few have ever seen. These snapshots have given us a window of understanding into the true state of the underlying geological formations around the various wells drilled in the Macondo Prospect.
Although our many deductions may be difficult for the layperson to apprehend at first, to the trained eye these are but obvious conclusions which are simply the result of cause and effect. In other words there is no dispute around the most serious geological changes which have occurred, and continue to occur, in the region around the Macondo wells. The original predicament (an 87 day gushing well) was extremely serious, as grasped by the entire world, and the existing situation is only going to get progressively worse.
Read the whole report with PICS at the link... truly sad.
(CNN) -- The chemistry of the world's oceans is changing at a rate not seen for 65 million years, with far-reaching implications for marine biodiversity and food security, according to a new United Nations study released Thursday.
"Environmental Consequences of Ocean Acidification," published by the U.N. Environmental Program (UNEP)," warns that some sea organisms including coral and shellfish will find it increasingly difficult to survive, as acidification shrinks the minerals needed to form their skeletons.