Ship fire halts oil capture in Gulf

A bolt of lightning struck the ship capturing oil from the blown-out BP well, igniting a fire that stopped containment efforts.

By

Ray Henry, AP

Tue, Jun 15 2010 at 3:13 PM

Related Topics:

Offshore Drilling, Gulf Oil Spill, Tony Hayward, Oil & Gas

TAKING ON OIL: The Transocean Discoverer Enterprise burns off some natural gas as it takes on oil from the broken BP wellhead at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo: Dave Martin/AP)

A bolt of lightning struck the ship capturing oil from the blown-out BP well in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, igniting a fire that halted containment efforts in another setback for the embattled company in its nearly two-month struggle to stop the spill, the company said.

The fire was quickly extinguished and no one was injured. BP said it hopes to resume containing oil from the well sometime Tuesday afternoon.

The fire occurred on the Discoverer Enterprise, where engineers are siphoning about 630,000 gallons of oil a day through a cap on top of the well.

"At the moment, there's no capture, no containment going on, but we'll start up the Enterprise when it's safe to do so," BP spokesman Robert Wine said.

The company will use robotic submarines to survey the entire containment system, including the cap over the well, for possible damage from the fire. The fire occurred in a vent pipe leading from a tank on the Enterprise where processed oil is stored.

Louisiana has been hit with several storms and lightning strikes in the past day.