CARACAS, (Reuters) – A Venezuelan natural gas exploration rig sank in the Caribbean sea early today, less than a month after a deadly explosion in the Gulf of Mexico sank a BP-owned oil rig and created a natural disaster.
All 95 workers on the Venezuelan rig were rescued safely and there was no gas leak, the government said. The BP accident claimed 11 lives and triggered one of the world’s worst oil spills, threatening sensitive coastal areas.
Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said the well being explored by the Aban Pearl platform had been safely sealed after the rig sank near the northeast coast, close to the Trinidad and Tobago islands.
“This is different from the Gulf of Mexico, because it is a testing well,” Ramirez told Reuters.
The rig’s captain, an Indian national, and the last three engineers on board had to dive into the sea as the football field-sized platform disappeared beneath the waves, he said.
“At 2:20 a.m. (0650 GMT) the rig sank completely. I flew over it this morning and there is nothing to see,” Ramirez said in an interview.
The Aban Pearl was the first offshore gas rig operated by state oil company PDVSA. State television frequently portrayed the platform as evidence of Venezuela’s engineering prowess.
The OPEC nation has been producing oil for more than a century, almost all of its oil and gas output onshore or from the inland Lake Maracaibo. Offshore drilling, especially deep water production, is expected to provide more of the world’s oil supply as production in onshore fields declines while demand rises.
The BP spill has prompted a push for tighter offshore drilling regulations in the United States. The Venezuelan accident could bring more scrutiny to offshore drilling.
“This is adding PR insult to injury,” Tyler Priest, director of global studies at the Bauer College of Business, University of Houston, and author of a book about Shell’s offshore Gulf of Mexico activities, said when asked about the two accidents happening so close together.
CHAVEZ ‘TWEETS’ NEWS
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez broke news of the accident at the rig — owned by India’s Aban Offshore in alliance with Singapore-based Petromarine Energy Services Ltd — at 3:11 a.m. (0741 GMT) from his Twitter account, @chavezcandanga.
Critics say Chavez wrecked PDVSA by firing thousands of managers and technicians after a strike in 2002. The company. the main financer of his socialist revolution, has suffered cash flow problems on lower oil prices.
Venezuela, one of the world’s leading oil exporters, has endured a series of fires and maintenance problems at its network of refineries in recent years. Nationalization of foreign-owned projects, new foreign investments and higher taxes have bolstered PDVSA’s coffers.
The Latin American nation sits on some of the world’s largest offshore natural gas reserves, but PDVSA is not yet producing offshore gas. Fears of rule changes and pricing issues mean the company has struggled to attract extraction investment from foreign companies with the right experience.
Ramirez said submersible robots would probe the cause of the accident, which appeared to be a sudden surge of water entering a submarine rafts that the rig’s legs float on.
“There are several hypothesis about the cause but nothing has been proved yet. We are going to send underwater robots because divers cannot enter there,” the minister said.
He said safety valves and other mechanisms have sealed the well, with no risk of a leak. The rig owner would likely try to refloat it, and two more exploration rigs are traveling to Venezuela from India, he said. Aban Offshore’s shares fell by 1.51 percent to 1017.35 rupees today.
The Aban Pearl rig was built in 1977 and last changed hands in 2007 for around $211 million. The semisubmersible rig was drilling some of the 16 gas wells in the Mariscal Sucre offshore natural gas project. Last week, Ramirez visited the platform to celebrate the end of early tests at the well, called Dragon 6.
The minister told Reuters the accident would not affect the development plan for the project, and he expected the first gas production in 2012.
Last year, PDVSA and Spanish giant Repsol said they had found a vast offshore gas field in Venezuelan waters. Then in April, Venezuela gave Chevron the go-ahead to extract gas from a 7 trillion cubic feet project off the Orinoco Delta, but Chevron says it will not extract gas from there for at least a few years.
Last year, PDVSA invited a group of companies to take part in Mariscal Sucre — but failed to attract any bids and the auction was closed. PDVSA is now hoping for a loan to develop the stalled 14 trillion cubic feet project.
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