Four people have been confirmed dead in an offshore helicopter crash off the coast of Brazil.  The helicopter had just taken off from a drilling platform located in the Atlantic Ocean when it crashed killing a pilot, co-pilot and two subcontractors.  The platform was operated by Brazilian company, Petrobras.  According to news accounts, the pil...

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A scientific panel is recommending that U.S. offshore drilling companies take a more systematic approach to offshore safety in order to prevent a disaster like the BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico last year.  The recommendations were made by the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. In a new report, the two ag...

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Three more dive boats have joined the search for a contractor still missing after an explosion Friday on an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana. The U.S. Coast Guard called off its search, but the company that owns the rig, Houston-based Black Elk Energy Company, continued to look for the missing worker.  One worker has been confirmed dead after...

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A Filipino oil worker died as a result of injuries sustained in the Nov. 16 explosion on an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana, the second fatality in the incident. One man is still missing and three remain in serious condition after suffering major burns in the blast.  The U.S. Department of Interior has called on Black Elk Energy Offshore Ope...

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The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has laid much of the blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil explosion last year on BP. However, Transocean, the owner of the rig, and Halliburton, which did much of the cementing work on the vessel, have not been spared blame either. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation an...

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The former head of the Bureau of Offshore Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said last week that an increase in “complacency” since the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is threatening the changes in safety regulations and government oversight that resulted from the incident.  Michael Bromwich, speaking at a National Press Club ev...

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A final set of federal safety regulations were issued last week for offshore drilling. The rules are a fine-tuning of the emergency measures enacted after the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill. The rules deal with how wells are designed and the testing of the cement and barriers that are used to secure them. The go...

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BP has agreed to plead guilty to felony charges, as well as pay $4.5 billion in penalties, in relation to the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion that left 11 workers dead and resulted in a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.The oil giant announced it would plead guilty to 11 felony counts of “misconduct or neglect of ships officers” in ...

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In the future, offshore oil rigs may be safer because pipes are manufactured with safer materials, thanks to research at the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology who are currently using car crash test software to predict pipe fractures. Offshore drilling pipes may be subjected to extreme pressure as they travel deep into the ocean, and require...

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A body thought to be one of two workers missing after an explosion on an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana was recovered late Saturday night, and the search for another missing worker was continuing. The two workers jumped off the platform into the Gulf of Mexico after the rig exploded Friday. The U.S. Coast Guard had suspended its search for ...

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The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is conducting an investigation into the BP explosion and oil spill last year. The investigation is being conducted at the request of Congress. The investigation is still on, but according to the New York Times, the board has found that lax federal offshore safety regulatory standards were re...

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Although preliminary work began Sunday on an exploratory drill 70 miles off the coast of Alaska, a giant block of floating ice was delaying any further work from continuing. A Royal Dutch Shell petroleum drill ship had begun the first drilling in U.S. Chukchi waters since 1991 but was forced to stop after only hours and move away to wait for an...

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A judge’s approval of $7.8 billion class-action lawsuit against BP for damages from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill is being appealed by more than 10,000 individuals and businesses. The company agreed in March to a settlement of an estimated $7.8 billion for most private plaintiff’s claims of economic loss, property damage and injuries stemmi...

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A bill introduced in the US House of Representatives would require rescue boats to be stationed within three nautical miles of offshore oil and gas drilling rigs.  The measure has been sponsored by Louisiana Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia. According to him, the proposal aims to find a common sense approach to the safety problems facing the offs...

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The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that BP is suspended from entering into new contracts with the United States government for its actions during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  "EPA is taking this action due to BP's lack of business integrity as demonstrated by the company's conduct wi...

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The Justice Department on Thursday announced that a settlement of $1.4 billion had been reached with Transocean for civil and criminal claims concerning the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blowout in 2010. An explosion at the oil rig, owned by driller Transocean, left 11 men dead and millions of gallons of oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico.  Transo...

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A British Petroleum executive is defending a report on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion in federal court in New Orleans today. Mark Bly was in charge of the company’s investigation into the explosion that killed 11 people and sent millions of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s the fourth day of testimony. The civil trial ...

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Globs of oil found on two Louisiana beaches after Hurrican Isaac has been confirmed as coming from the 2010 BP oil spill. Louisiana State University tested the oil, found on Elmer’s Island and Grand Isle, for state wildlife officials. It was found to match the biological fingerprint of the hundreds of millions of gallons of oil that spilled into...

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Royal Dutch Shell announced today after a series of delays and setbacks that it was holding off until next year in its efforts to drill into oil and gas deposits in the Arctic offshore. In the latest delay, the company’s high-tech dome, which is designed to contain oil should an underwater spill happen, was damaged during a test. Shell said it ...

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A coalition of environmental groups from five states filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court claiming the Environmental Protection Agency rules on chemical dispersants used in oil spill cleanups do not adhere to clean water standards. The lawsuit says the EPA has not published regulations on acceptable use of such dispersants in response to oil...

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BP on Saturday completed a subsea mission to determine whether the Deepwater Horizon site is again leaking oil, the U.S. Coast Guard announced today, but the results of the search have yet to be released.  As of Friday, no leak had been found, according to the Coast Guard’s on-scene coordinator, Capt. Duke Walker. Walker said the remotely opera...

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A Shell Oil drilling ship lost its mooring in Alaska’s Dutch Harbor last week, drifting dangerously close to shore. Despite witness claims, inspections by divers show no evidence that the ship ran aground.  The 571-foot Noble Discoverer is part of the Shell fleet getting ready for exploratory drilling in the Arctic waters of the Chukchi and Bea...

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A body recovered in the Gulf of Mexico may be the worker missing since an explosion on an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana on Nov. 16. The Jefferson Parish coroner’s office will use dental records and possibly DNA to determine whether the body is Jerome Malagapo, a Filipino contractor. The body was spotted Monday by crewmembers of a supply ve...

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Despite underwater inspections at the site of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, BP has failed to identify the source of a persistent oil sheen in the Gulf of Mexico, officials announced Tuesday. Recent inspections confirmed that the Macondo well is secure, both BP and the U.S. Coast Guard said. The well, which blew out in 2010 and poured mi...

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The trial over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill is set to begin this morning in New Orleans before a federal judge, with no jury. Attempts to reach a settlement over the weekend failed, but legal experts expect that one will be reached, at least with the U.S. Department of Justice, within the next few months.  Eleven men were ...

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The search has been halted for a contractor missing after an explosion on an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana. The worker had been missing since Friday.  Jerome Malagapo, of the Philippines, was an employee of Grand Isle Shipyard Inc. and was working as a contractor on the rig, owned by Houston-based Black Elk Energy. One worker was confirmed...

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BP is beginning the fifth day of a subsea mission, under U.S. Coast Guard supervision, to search for possible oil leaks from the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, according to reports. The oil rig explosion in 2010 killed 11 workers and leaked more than 7 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over three months before it was finall...

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Oil and gas exploration company Apache Corporation has announced that it managed to prevent a possibly disastrous well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico recently.  According to the company, it identified an “abnormally pressured gas zone” during drilling operations conducted in the shallow water Main Pass 295 in the Gulf Of Mexico. The problem was ...

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Two BP workers have been charged in the deaths of 11 people in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, the highest-ranking BP employees aboard the Deepwater Horizon when the explosion occurred, have been charged with manslaughter, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday. They are accuse...

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Rough weather, including gale-force winds and high waves, prompted Statoil ASA to evacuate by helicopter 336 people from a housing platform in the Norwegian Sea, the second time oil workers have faced serious safety issues since September. The platform offers temporary accommodations for offshore workers. The helicopters evacuated workers 15 at...

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