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World's biggest oil rig tilts into sea after blast

By Luiz Andre Ferreira

 
MACAE, Brazil, March 16 (Reuters) - The world's biggest offshore oil rig,
owned by Brazil's state oil giant Petrobras, threatened to sink into the
ocean spilling crude oil on Friday, a day after an explosion that apparently
killed 10 people.

Three powerful blasts rocked the 40-story rig off the coast of Rio de Janeiro
state on Thursday, causing a fire that killed at least one of the 175 workers
aboard.

Nine workers were listed as missing, and Petrobras said on Thursday that
there was little chance they had survived. Another worker was hospitalized
with severe burns.

On Friday, public outrage mounted against accident-prone Petrobras as its
biggest platform tilted into the sea. If the rig sinks it could dump crude
and diesel into the open ocean, causing yet another environmental disaster.

Tense families of the workers also waited to see if the official death toll
would rise when search and rescue operations resume later in the day.

"Petrobras is much more worried about cutting costs than ensuring the safety
of its workers and of the environment," said Jandira Segalli, a federal
deputy who met with officials after the explosion.

Union leaders called a nationwide protest on Friday to demand safer working
conditions. They accused Petrobras of outsourcing work to inexperienced
workers in order to cut costs, thus putting its employees at risk.

More than 80 oil workers have died in accidents over the last three years,
according to the United Oil Workers Federation (FUP).

It was still not clear what caused the blasts at the platform, located in the
Roncador oil field 78 miles (125 km) offshore in the Campos Basin, where 80
percent of Brazil's oil is produced.

But damage to one of the rig's hulls threatened to send the rig sinking into
the ocean.

"If the degree of listing increases we are going to lose the platform,"
Petrobras President Henri Philippe Reichstul said in a videoconference on
Thursday. "It will only be clear by tomorrow (Friday) morning."

The immense structure was listing three times more than the Leaning Tower of
Pisa, according to engineers, and appeared on the verge of lurching into the
sea. If it did, at least half of the 1,200 cubic meters of diesel and 300
cubic meters of crude stored on the rig could spill.

Five boats are standing by to collect the oil, but they can only hold half of
the total amount stored there.

The P-36 rig can produce up to 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day, making
it the world's biggest platform, but after starting operations last year, it
was only pumping out 80,000 bpd, or 5 percent of Brazil's total daily output.

All production was halted and Petrobras said it could lose $50 million a
month with the rig out of operation.

Petrobras' stock sank 6.8 percent and Brazil's currency weakened on Thursday
on investor concerns that Petrobras will have to make up for lost production
with more costly imports.

Petrobras has also caused a string of high-profile environmental disasters in
recent years.

22:52 03-15-01

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