money.telegraph: Tilting platform alarms BP



BP yesterday sent an emergency response team to one of its largest platforms in the Gulf of Mexico after it was discovered to be listing badly following the weekend's hurricane.

A passing ship sparked the alarm after spotting the Thunder Horse platform leaning at an angle of 25 degrees. All personnel had been evacuated on Friday as Hurricane Dennis, a category four storm with winds of around 150mph, closed in. BP said the listing could be due to excess water in the platform's ballast tanks and did not necessarily mean it had suffered major structural damage. The company said it had no reports that the rig was leaking fuel or any other hazardous substances.

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KRISTV.COM - Corpus Christi, TX - Thunder Horse damaged by Dennis


BP Photo

One of the largest offshore platforms ever built is now leaning 20 to 30 degrees on its side thanks to Hurricane Dennis.

The Thunder Horse platform that is located 150 miles southeast of new orleans. The Thunder Horse platform was built by Kiewit Offshore Services in Ingleside. The rig was towed out into the Gulf back in April.

BP is now working with the Coast Guard to create a response plan to help get the 600-thousand ton platform back upright.

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RigZone: Thunder Horse Response Effort Continues


Thunder Horse Moored Semisubmersible PDQ
(Click to Enlarge)

July 14, 2005

In a joint-agency response, the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Coast Guard and Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service are coordinating with BP and other agencies on the ongoing operations to right the listing Thunder Horse semisubmersible platform.

Response and recovery efforts for the semisubmersible platform will continue as contract crews and BP employees work to remove water from the platform.

The Coast Guard Cutter Pelican, an 87-foot patrol boat homeported in Abbeville, La., is on scene enforcing a safety zone and will provide search and rescue response capabilities in the event of an emergency.

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Bloomberg: BP to Deploy More Pumps to Right Tilting Thunder Horse Platform

July 14

BP Plc, the world's second-largest publicly traded oil company, plans to deploy more pumps in an effort to right its $1 billion Thunder Horse oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico, the world's largest rig of its kind.

``The platform is stable after two and half days'' of rescue operations, London-based BP spokesman David Nicholas said in a telephone interview today. ``There is a reliable source of power, and there are lights on board.''

BP three days ago said it found the platform tilted at about a 20-degree angle following a report from a passing vessel after Hurricane Dennis struck the gulf. The staff of the 50,000-ton platform, located 150 miles southeast of New Orleans, had already been evacuated before the storm.

The shares of BP on July 12 had their largest drop in seven months on concern of delays to the project. BP shares rose 4 pence, or 0.6 percent, to 625.5 pence as of 10:27 a.m. London time today.

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As Thunder Horse lists, cause remains a mystery

Gulf platform's status shows signs of improvement

As many as 900 workers and 15 support ships are laboring to restore the massive oil and natural gas platform Thunder Horse to an upright position off Louisiana.

Despite the challenges, there are signs the situation has improved since Monday. The Coast Guard said it no longer has a helicopter stationed at the scene for emergency rescues because there's no longer an imminent fear that it might capsize. And BP spokesman Ronnie Chappell said workers can no longer step directly from support ships onto the rig's deck but must be lifted onboard via a crane.

Hurricane Dennis, the storm that forced the evacuation of Thunder Horse last Friday, does not appear to be the primary cause of the problem. The response team has not found physical damage to the hull, BP said, and the largest waves recorded by buoys near the platform were barely 30 feet high, according to the National Data Buoy Center.

Many observers have speculated that the ballast control system may have malfunctioned during the storm and started to fill the tanks, but the company said that system was shut down as part of evacuation procedures.

Other theories have run from the absurd — terrorists shorting BP stock and planting a bomb to make money during the ensuing chaos — to the mundane, such as a failure of the crew to follow proper evacuation procedures.

The company wouldn't speculate on causes.

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Servicehoo: BP reports progress correcting 'Thunder Horse' platform

18 Jul 2005

As deadly Hurricane Emily barreled through the Gulf of Mexico, British energy giant BP said that its recovery team had made significant progress fixing an oil platform sent listing by a similar storm in the area last week.

"The recovery team made significant progress in the last 24-hours in righting the Thunder Horse semi-submersible platform," BP said Monday.

Following pumping operations, Thunder Horse was lodged at an angle of just five degrees, the statement continued. Thunder Horse "continues to rise and is stable", it added. "The platform's decking is now 46 feet (14 metres) out of the water and the hull has reached normal displacement."

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