Other Incidents – 1997

January 05, 1997 - Amoco Production Company

Remarks: The port side crane on the Reading & Bates drilling rig was being used to offload equipment from the rig floor to the work boat Fast Supporter. The crane operator had picked up an 18,000-lb. Filco filter unit and was in the process of setting it on the boat deck when the sling broke. The filter unit struck the boat's handrail and fell overboard into 172 ft of water. The wire sling used for the lift was underrated and its age and physical condition was such that it should not have been part of the lifting appliance inventory. The operator's on-site incident investigation revealed that the wire sling was 1 in in diameter, approximately 4 years old, and had visible corrosion. Southwest Wire Rope Riggers Manual approved this size sling for loads not exceeding 17,000 lbs. The Filco filter unit exceeded the approved load limit by 1,000 lbs.

January 11, 1997 - Pel-Tex Oil Company

Remarks: None

January 31, 1997 - Conoco, Inc.

Remarks: Two 25-ft water hoses fell overboard.

February 05, 1997 - Phillips Petroleum Company

Remarks: Shut pipeline in at 0835 and pressure is 0. NRC #376109

February 22, 1997 - Norcen Explorer, Inc.

Remarks: None

March 04, 1997 - Shell Offshore, Inc.

Remarks:

March 08, 1997 - Newfield Exploration Company

Remarks: Lafayette Well Testers representatives were in the process of testing Well A-4 when the portable well test piping parted near the weld joint between the half union and the straight pipe. The piping came from the production tree, vertically to the production equipment on an upper deck, and was secured by chains lashed to the upper deck. The piping arrangement was tested to 10,000 psig prior to bringing Well A-4 on line. At the time the piping parted, Well A-4 was flowing with 6305 psig FTP, 2318 MCFD, 624 BOPD and 3 BWPD. The well was shut-in immediately by the Lafayette Well Testers operators actuating the wing valve at the production tree. There were no injuries and only minimal pollution resulted from this incident.

March 09, 1997 - Shell Offshore, Inc.

Remarks: Received report by mail. Electrical smoke fire. No fire was observed. Generator ESD was experienced. Operators had trouble restarting.

March 23, 1997 - Chevron Oil Company

Remarks: During the normal daily platform inspection the operator spotted bubbles in the water. As a result, operator shut-in all production to the 12-in pipeline in the WC 198 field. Best guess is approximately 20 gallons of condensate.

April 03, 1997 - Murphy Exploration & Production Company

Remarks: Murphy Exploration & Producing Company's Lease OCS-G 1023, Platfrom A, Ship Shoal Block 224, has a pedestal mounted crane which it uses for general lifting service such as personnel and supplies; and also for service work on the platform. At the time of the accident, the crane operator was attempting to lift a valve tree from a well head which was 62 ft away from the center of the crane. All of the lower valve flange bolts were either removed or loosened enough that they did not restrain the valve tree (A later examination of this flange revealed that the gasket was frozen to the flange faces).

April 22, 1997 - Phillips Petroleum Company

Remarks: While washing sand and cement from inside 3-1/2-in production tubing at 9,627' CTM with 1 ¼-in CT, the CT began to leak at the gooseneck. The leak was small enough to make the Preeminent Energy Services operator think the stuffing box was leaking. After applying more pressure to the stuffing box, the leak did not stop so he climbed the stack to the injector head and found the leak near the 2nd roller from the bottom of the gooseneck. He then shut the pipe and slip rams below the shear rams, holding the CT fish and closed the cutter rams making a good, square cut on the CT. The CT was pulled up and the blind rams closed, securing the well. As 5-7 minutes had passed before the blind rams were closed, 3-1/2 bbls of filtered seawater was sprayed on the platform deck.

April 25, 1997 - Conoco, Inc.

Remarks: None

May 24, 1997 - Equitable Resources Energy Company

Remarks: None

June 15, 1997 - Shell Offshore, Inc.

Remarks: None

July 17,  1997 - Coastal Oil & Gas Corporation

Remarks: None

July 26, 1997 - Union Oil Company of California

Remarks: The source of the pressure on the surface casing was the gas lift gas in the production casing. On 7-26-97, after repairing the test port threads on the starter head of the surface casing, the operator began feeding gas lift gas into the 9 5\8-in, 47#\ft, N-80 production casing. At 1340 hrs the 20-in, 106.5 #\ft, K-55, surface casing failed at approximately the +10ft. level. The pressure recorder attached to the surface casing indicated that the casing failed at 980 psig. The gas supply line to the 9 5\8-in casing was immediately closed at the gas lift manifold. No fire or pollution occurred due to the incident. After discussing the situation with their office supervisor, the gas lift gas was bled off the 9 5\8-in casing. Two pump-thru-type tubing plugs were installed in the tubing and the tubing was bled to zero.

July 30, 1997 - Union Oil Company of California

Remarks: During a rigging down operation for a platform workover rig, a Bullfrog Crane was lifting the rig's Master Skid off the platform. The load cleared the platform and was being lowered onto the workboat. About 30 ft above the boat, the crane boom failed, dropping the load onto the deck of the workboat where it struck the other rig packages already on the deck. There were no injuries sustained.

August 21, 1997 - Forcenergy, Inc.

Remarks: Rig personnel had just completed plug and abandon procedures on Well A-2. A Cameron representative had set a back pressure valve in the tubing hanger of Well A-3. Prior to setting the valve both the tubing and all casing annuli were checked for pressure. Zero psi was observed. Rig personnel proceeded to remove the studs and nuts to remove the tree from the casing head flange. As the tree was being rocked back and forth the seal was broken (metal ring seal) on the casing flange and gas started escaping. The crew immediately reset the tree in place and proceeded to bolt the tree onto the casing head to effect a seal. A full seal between the tree and the casing head flange was not successful and a small gas leak continued.

September 25, 1997 - TOTAL Minatome Corporation

Remarks: None

October 06, 1997 - CXY Energy Offshore, Inc.

Remarks: None

November 05, 1997 - Murphy Exploration & Production

Remarks: Cassion #8 failure of the 72-in cassion at the weld caused the structure to fall to the bottom of the sea floor around 0500 hrs. Production operator noticed a drop in gas sales chart. He started checking around 0600 hrs and found no flow from the #8 cassion. He did a visial around 1000 and the #8 cassion could not be seen. Aircraft over flight was ordered at 1015 hrs and no sighting of the #8 was made and no pollution was seen.