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Monday, March 17, 2008
According to reports out of Egypt, a rig owned by ENI unit Saipem experienced a serious explosion on March 8. The explosion reportedly took place in the Gulf of Suez while under contract to the EGPC and ENI joint venture Petrobel.
The explosion, and resultant fire, shut down production at nine nearby wells for three days according to Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al Yom, and injured two workers on the rig.
The Egyptian daily reported that financial losses from the incident hit about $78 million and shut in an estimated 40,000 bpd.
Other reports have it that a fire was responsible for the shut-in production and that there was not an explosion on the rig.
There have been several rig incidents offshore Egypt this century, including a blow-out on a Petrobel platform in the Mediterranean in August of 2004. GlobalSantaFe’s Adriactic IV jack-up rig sunk and was a complete loss for the company. In this incident, an explosion occured at a natural gas well and a fire spread to the platform and raged out of control for one week (months by other accounts) before being brought under control.
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