墨西哥湾钻井架爆炸事故 11人失踪

【英文原文】

Blast Jolts Oil World
The Coast Guard said Wednesday that it was still searching for 11 people missing after an explosion and fire at a oil-drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico that left three critically injured.

The rig, about 41 miles off the Louisiana coast, is owned and operated by Transocean Ltd. and contracted to British oil major BP PLC. A spokesman for Transocean said most of the 126 people on board were safe. The Coast Guard said Wednesday afternoon that 11 were still missing. The rig was still burning and listing.

It was unclear what caused the blast, which happened at around 10 p.m. Transocean Vice President Adrian Rose said crews were performing routine work before the explosion and there were no signs of trouble, the Associated Press reported. Tuesday. Initial indications show that terrorism wasn't involved, the Coast Guard said.

A spokesman for BP said the company had six personnel on board the rig at the time of the incident, and all were safe. The rig, the Deepwater Horizon, is located in an area known as the Mississippi Canyon.

Deepwater Horizon is a semisubmersible, effectively a floating platform that has small thrusters to hold it in place above a well. It was carrying out exploration drilling on BP's Macondo prospect in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. BP said Transocean was carrying out the work on BP's behalf and was responsible for safety on the rig. Its staff on the facility work with Transocean's drilling team to make sure the work is done to BP's specifications.

BP, which owns the rights to produce oil and gas from the area, filed for a permit April 16 to temporarily abandon the well it was drilling at the site of the explosion, according to the Minerals Management Service, an arm of the Interior Department that oversees offshore drilling. It wasn't clear from the service's data if the government had approved the permit.

A BP spokesman says it had recently wrapped up exploration drilling. It is standard practice, the spokesman said, to file such a permit. The rig would then be moved to another location while BP spends time analyzing and interpreting data.

【中文译文】

美国海岸警卫队(Coast Guard)周三表示，仍在搜救墨西哥湾一处石油井架发生爆炸和火灾之后失踪的11人。这起事故已造成三人重伤。

消防队正在奋力扑灭井架大火油井位于路易斯安那海岸线41英里远的地方，为Transocean公司所有和运营，正受托于石油巨头英国石油公司(BP PLC，下称英国石油)进行钻探作业。Transocean公司说，井架上的126人中多数安全。海岸警卫队周三下午称，仍有11人失踪。井架仍在燃烧和倾斜。

爆炸发生于周二晚上10点左右，原因未明。据美联社(Associated Press)报道，Transocean副总裁罗斯(Adrian Rose)表示，爆炸发生时井架上人员在进行常规作业，没有任何故障迹象。海岸警卫队表示，初步证据表明，这起事故不涉及恐怖主义。

英国石油的一位发言人表示，事故发生时，该公司在井架上有六名人员，他们全部安全。井架名为“深水地平线”(Deepwater Horizon)，位于一个被称为“密西西比大峡谷”(Mississippi Canyon)的区域。

井架为半潜式，实际上就是一个浮在水面上的平台，下面有小型推进器让它固定在油井上方。当时它正在英国石油位于墨西哥湾深水区的潜在油田“Macondo”上执行勘探钻井。英国石油表示，Transocean当时是代表英国石油作业，并对井架上的安全负责。它在井架上的工作人员同Transocean公司的钻探团队一起合作，确保按照英国石油的规范进行作业。

英国石油拥有从该区域开采石油和天然气的权利。美国矿产资源管理局(Minerals Management Service)称，该公司已于4月16日申请暂时废弃爆炸现场正在钻探的油井。矿产资源管理局隶属内政部(Interior Department)，负责监管海上钻探。从该部门的资料还看不出政府有没有批准英国石油的申请。

英国石油的一位发言人表示，该公司已于近期完成勘探钻井。这位发言人说，提出上诉申请属于一种惯例。得到批准后，井架将被搬迁到其他地方，而英国石油将花时间对数据进行分析和解读。