Oil Rig Explodes In Mexican Gulf

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30482, 2 July 1964, Page 13

Oil Rig Explodes In Mexican Gulf

(N.Z, Press Association —Copyright)

MORGAN CITY, July 1.

With a terrifying roar, a fire and explosion shattered a towering oil rig before dawn yesterday, sending the steel skeleton into the Gulf of Mexico, 72 miles off the Louisiana coast.

Two men perished in the ball of flames, 13 are missing, and 27 survived, some with severe burns. “There was. fire everywhere,” said L. C. Franks, a survivor. “If hell is any worse, I don’t want to go there." The rig had 42 men aboard and two more were in a boat alongside the 6,000,000-dollar barge. It had begun drilling

for oil 78 miles south-west of Morgan City on Monday. Half the men were asleep at 3.30 a.m. when the rush of gas bellowed from beneath the sea and burst into flame, ignited by a spark. .

Survivors said the drill hit a shallow,, high-pressure pocket of gas at the 684 ft level. The gas began seeping up to the rig, they said. “The floor began to buckle and we knew it was time to get off,” one survivor said. Trapped By Flames

Most were trapped momentarily by flames, which covered the rig and surrounding waters. Winds whipped the flames away from one side of the rig for a moment and some crewmen leaped into the water.

The rig and barge sank in 180 feet of water within 15 minutes. Smoke and flames up to 10 feet high marked the spot hours later. The floating rig, two hulls with a large derrick and a heliport suspended in between, was positioned in a spot known as Block 273, off Eugene Island. Oil company officials said this was the first time that oil or gas had been encountered above the 3000 feet level in the Eugene Island area and that a shallow pocket blow-out was unexpected. The 260 ft rig, and others like it, operate for long periods off the Texas and Louisiana coasts. They are air-conditioned and equipped with television.