Have safety conditions improved in the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon explosion?
It would appear not, since just a day after BP pleaded guilty to criminal charges stemming from that disaster, there was another unfortunate oil rig accident in the Gulf, about 25 miles from Grand Isle, La.
In an accident Friday morning there was an explosion and fire at a oil pumping rig owned by Black Elk Energy. A number of news reports said that two workers were missing, but The Christian Science Monitor reported late Friday night that two workers were confirmed dead, two were missing and 11 were injured,
http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2012/11/black_elk_energy_accident_rene.html
The oil traveling to the rig platform had been shut off so that a pipeline from the platform to the land could be replaced, NOLA.com reported. But there was an explosion when a contractor from Grand Isle Shipyard used a torch on the pipeline, which was apparently connected to a tank that had oil and gas vapors.
According to NOLA.com, the accident lends credence to the concerns of environmentalists who fear that small companies such as Black Elk don’t have the financial wherewithal to comply with new safety standards mandated by the new federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the Coast Guard.
Federal officials and Black Elk will be investigating blast, and looking into why the pipeline still had oil and natural gas in it when workers took a cutting torch to it, NOLA.com reported.
And this should come as no surprise: Black Elk has had other oil rig accidents, and paid a $300,000 fine for not using proper procedures on one of its platforms, according to NOLA.com.