Coast Guard responding to rig fire Gulf of Mexico; people reported in water

With breaking news alerts coming from CNN, NY Times, and others we decided to go to the best source for news from the Gulf -- NOLA.com from New Orleans. Details are sketchy as this just happened but NOLA was quick to point out this is small rig and nothing close to what happened with Horizon. The best news is that everyone is accounted for from the rig.

Coast Guard responding to rig fire Gulf of Mexico; people reported in water
Published: Thursday, September 02, 2010, 10:10 AM
Updated: Thursday, September 02, 2010, 11:07 AM

Bob Warren

...In an interview with CNN, Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough said there were 13 people on the rig and that all were accounted for. Twelve of the workers are in immersion suits and one is injured, he said.

Immersion suits protect the wearer from hypothermia.

All 13 people abandoned the rig after the explosion and are accounted for, but have not yet been rescued from the Gulf, the Coast Guard said.

Colclough said the rig was not actively producing at the time of the incident, but is still on fire. The explosion was reported around 9:30 this morning....

Vermilion Oil Rig 360 is a gas and oil rig in 450 feet of water in South Timbalier Block 316, according to company records.

Vermillion 380 is a fixed, manned production platform. It's not a well being drilled for oil, like BP's Macondo well and it's not a floating rig like the Deepwater Horizon.

Lee Hunt, president of the International Association of Drilling Contractors, said these types of rigs are permanently in place, often with a pipeline or oil and gas and water separation facilities on board.
"It's more like a small offshore refining operation," he said.

Excerpt: Read More at NOLA.com

Job Creation? Obama puts it first in speeches and second or lower in his actions!

Obama talks a good talk when it comes to job creations as he reads from his teleprompter but when it comes to his actions to improve the job picture, he falls back on giving out more unemployment benefits -- after all Pelosi calls that 'job creation.'

Unemployment benefits are creating jobs faster than practically any other program, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday.

When you have someone as Speaker of the House who believes Govenment Unemployment benefits is creating jobs across America, you have just thrown common sense out the window. That seems to be a symptom of this Administration -- NO COMMON SENSE!

What Obama and his people have done to the states along the Gulf Coast especially Louisiana and Texas should be a crime. Putting a moratorium on drilling when a federal judge overruled them, but they reinstated it, should get them in front of the judge. I would throw Salazar in jail for contempt, but then that is me and probably a lot of others. The contempt this Administration has for the Rule of Law is mind boggling when it doesn't fit their Agenda.

Now Obama has announced he is going to New Orleans on the anniversary of Katrina. Alabama and Mississippi, states who were also hit hard, won't have to put up with an Obama visit which must make their Democrat candidates extremely happy. Want to bet his bashes President Bush in his speech? Not going to work because people of Louisiana who actually work on the rigs or in jobs that support oil drilling are not going to forget the Obama lack of interest with this Gulf spill and will remember the moratorium.

Watch him lift the moratorium and expect to be adored by Louisiana residents. The news media will be their usual adoring fan club for Obama about what he is doing for the Gulf ignoring everything he didn't do as they keep trying to fool the rest of us.

One thing he has done since being in the White House -- increased the awareness in golfing showing you can improve your golf game if you play it enough.

Jobs Take Second Place, Again
Jennifer Rubin - 08.23.2010 - 7:14 AM

The Obama team, we are told, can’t figure out how to stem unemployment. But actually, it seems they simply place job creation and preservation below other priorities. This report explains:

Senior Obama administration officials concluded the federal moratorium on deepwater oil drilling would cost roughly 23,000 jobs, but went ahead with the ban because they didn’t trust the industry’s safety equipment and the government’s own inspection process, according to previously undisclosed documents.

Critics of the moratorium, including Gulf Coast political figures and oil-industry leaders, have said it is crippling the region’s economy, and some have called on the administration to make public its economic analysis. A federal judge who in June threw out an earlier six-month moratorium faulted the administration for playing down the economic effects.

The Obama administration, the least transparent in history, however, has been actively misleading the court: ”The administration has said in court filings that the economic effect of suspended drilling wasn’t as severe as the industry asserted.” The administration turns out to have less credibility than Big Oil. (”An American Petroleum Institute spokesman said the documents show ‘the government itself understood there would be significant impacts felt throughout the region.’”)...

Read more at Commentary Magazine

Taiwan Oil Skimmer Heads to Gulf -- will it be allowed to operate in the Gulf?

This A-Whale skimmer ship from Taiwan stopped in Norfolk and is now on its way to the Gulf to assist in the BP oil spill clean-up if the Federal Government will allow them to help. Who knows at this point in time since they have to get EPA approval since small amounts of oil will be put back into the Gulf with the water. Let's see -- we have small amounts of oil which are barely visible versus huge amounts of oil heading for the beaches of the Gulf Coast so which will the EPA choose? Jury is out on whether EPA and the rest of this Administration is willing to accept help or continue to put roadblocks in the way of protecting the beaches. We should know shortly if Obama and his Administration will permit this ship into the Gulf to help or if they will put more roadblocks in the way.


"A Whale," a Taiwanese-owned ship billed as the world's largest skimming vessel, is docked in Norfolk, Va., on Friday, June 25, en route to the Deepwater Horizon disaster area. The ship — the length of 3 1/2 football fields and 10 stories high — is designed to collect up to 500,000 barrels of oily water a day through 12 vents on either side of its bow. (AP)

Taiwan oil skimmer heads to Gulf

NORFOLK, Va. -- With no assurances it will be allowed to join the Gulf oil cleanup, a Taiwanese-owned ship billed as the world's largest skimming vessel began a three day voyage to the scene of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The ship — the length of 3 1/2 American football fields and 10 stories high — is designed to collect up to 500,000 barrels of oily water a day through 12 vents on either side of its bow. It docked in Norfolk en route to the Gulf from Portugal, where it was retrofitted to skim the seas.

The ship and its crew of 32 were to leave Virginia waters Friday evening.

The owners of the “A Whale” said the ship features a new skimming approach that has never been attempted on such a large scale. They are anxious to put it to its first test in the Gulf.

“We really have to start showing people what we can do,” said Bob Grantham, project coordinator for TMT Group, a Taiwan-based shipping company.

The company is still negotiating with the Coast Guard to join the cleanup and does not have a contract with BP to perform cleanup work. The company also needs environmental approval and waiver of a nearly century-old law aimed at protecting U.S. shipping interests.

Environmental Protection Agency approval is required because some of the seawater returned to the Gulf would have traces of oil.

The Coast Guard, which has received more than 2,000 cleanup proposals, said the supertanker skimmer had survived a preliminary review and was being studied further.

Capt. Ron LaBrec said that initial review involves a number of government agencies, including the EPA.

One question, he said, is: “Will a large vessel like this be able to operate this in this kind of area?”
If the ship passes the additional review, its owners could then negotiate terms with BP. He could not provide an estimated timetable for the review would be completed.

The company said it also needs a waiver of the 1920 Jones Act, which limits the activities of foreign-flagged ships in coastal U.S. waters. The A Whale is Liberian-flagged vessel.
Grantham said TMT was hopeful it could secure the necessary approvals during the ship's three-day passage to the Gulf.

Read More at: Chinapost.com

Pence Says Administration "slow to Respond" to Oil Spill in Gulf

Cong Pence is 100% correct in his speech on the floor of the House today about the Oil Spill in the Gulf. Below you can view the speech and the transcript.

Why didn't the Obama Administration have the necessary equipment on hand to control the spill from Day One? Where were the oil booms that are required by the 1994 Plan to contain spills? Did Obama give them away to a foreign country? We have no idea but that delay has caused a lot more oil to be spilled due to no booms in place. He used the environmentalist to explain why they didn't burn but it was a cover up for lack of equipment.

Does this Administration ever just give the facts?

“The American people deserve answers”

Washington, DC - U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, delivered the following remarks on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in regards to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico:

"The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is an ongoing tragedy, and the American people deserve action to protect our Gulf and they deserve answers.

"The American people deserve to know what happened on April 20th, and Congress should investigate it thoroughly.

"The American people deserve to know why the administration was slow to respond, why necessary equipment was not immediately on hand in the area and why the president did not fully deploy cabinet-level federal officials until he spoke at the White House on April 28th.

"Lastly, the American people deserve answers for a pathway toward energy independence. There would be those in this country who would exploit this ongoing disaster to deny the American people more access to American oil that but the American people know better.

"The pathway toward energy independence is environmentally responsible expansion of domestic drilling for oil and natural gas. It's more wind and solar and nuclear and more conservation.

"Republicans are determined to get the American people the answers about what happened on April 20th, about the slow federal response and to give the American people answers and a pathway toward energy independence that uses ‘all of the above.'"