Alaskan Star Rig Catches Fire Offshore Brazil

A fire outbreak occured Tuesday around 14:30 in one of the oil columns of the Alaskan Star rig, operated by the Brazil’s state controlled oil and gas company, Petrobras.

The owner of the rig, Queiroz Galvão Óleo e Gás (“QGOG”), said that the fire brigade was immediately activated, and successfully extinguished the fire. QGOG informed that the rig, built in 1976 (upgraded in 201o) had shown signs of slight tilting caused by the volume of the water used to fight the fire. The crew of 102 workers onboard the rig sustained no injuries.

Petrobras on Wednesday informed the owner that the technical teams had restored power to Alaskan Star and the rig was being prepared to restart drilling operations in Albacora prospect. Albacora is located in Brazil’s Campos Basin, some 139 km off the coast of Macaé, the centre of the Brazilian offshore petroleum industry.

The fire-hit rig, Alaskan Star, is an L-900 design, Pacesetter type, equipped to operate in water depths up to 1,673 ft. The rig has a variable load capacity of 2,500 long ton and is rated to drill to 25,000 ft.

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Offshore Energy Today Staff, March 15, 2012