Planning is underway to determine when it will be safe to perform a detailed inspection of a Shell-operated platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, following a fire which broke out on the platform on Wednesday.
To remind, two offshore workers were injured in an incident on Shell’s Enchilada fixed-leg oil platform on Wednesday, prompting Shell to shut in production at Enchilada as well as Auger and Salsa platforms and nearby fields. According to Shell, the fire was associated with a 30-inch gas export pipeline.
After the fire had been extinguished, Shell and United States Coast Guard vessels continued to monitor the Enchilada platform. Shell said in an update on Thursday that verification that no additional hydrocarbons were escaping from or are trapped in the pipeline would be performed prior to personnel boarding the platform.
Shell, USCG and the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) are investigating the cause of the incident.