Gallery: Gulf of Mexico platform fire

Following a fire on an oil platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, which has now been put out, the U.S. Coast Guard has released the photos of the firefighting operations.

To remind, the Ship Shoal 266 A platform owned by Renaissance Offshore caught fire around early morning on Thursday.

There were four people aboard the platform at the time of the incident. The platform is located about 80 miles southwest of Grand Isle, Louisiana.

In an e-mail to Offshore Energy Today, Renaissance Offshore said initial efforts had been made by the crew to extinguish the fire. However, the decision was then made to discontinue those efforts and abandon the platform due to heavy smoke.

“All four crew members onboard safely evacuated from the platform aboard a life raft and were recovered by a field vessel that had been dispatched to the location. The crew has arrived safely onshore and it has been confirmed that they suffered no injuries,” Renaissance said.

According to Renaissance, the fire was completely extinguished at approximately 5:50 am CST.

The company and BSEE personnel boarded the platform at 1:45pm CST Thursday and confirmed the “ignition source was extinguished and all hydrocarbons are secure.”

In a separate statement on Thursday, BSEE said that as a result of the fire, production had been shut in on both the A and B platforms, which are co-located and operated by Renaissance. The 10 wells on Platform A and seven on Platform B were shut in prior to the operators’ evacuation.

“There is no visible oil sheen reported. BSEE inspectors are onsite and have begun conducting a thorough investigation,” BSEE said late on Thursday.

Offshore Energy Today Staff