Adair Firefighters to Tackle North Sea Rig Blaze

Firefighters from Paul (Red) Adair’s Texas firm arrived in Scotland’s oil capital Friday to tackle a blaze under a North Sea oil rig rocked by gas explosions.

A spokesman for Atlantic Richfield, the parent company of the British firm that operated the stricken Ocean Odyssey platform, said the two Adair representatives were waiting for permission from authorities to fly out and board the rig.

Adair’s firm fought the fire that devastated the nearby Piper Alpha platform in July. An explosion and fire on that rig, which was operated by Occidental Petroleum, killed 167 men in the worst drilling disaster in the North Sea.

A sea search resumed at dawn around the Ocean Odyssey rig, located 138 miles east of Aberdeen, for the one worker out of 67 aboard who was reported missing after the blast Thursday, a spokesman for the Aberdeen coast guard said. The missing man was identified as Timothy Williams, 25, a radio operator.

Coast guard spokesman David Lingard said the fire on the rig was consuming gas coming up from the undersea well hole.

“A firefighting vessel is on the scene and hosing down the rig,” he said. “The intention is to cut three of the eight anchor cables and allow the rig to drift slightly from the present location, and then it should be free of the fire and people can get on.”

Arco gave its first detailed explanation of how the fire occurred on the sophisticated rig that was doing deep exploratory drilling.

A statement said there was a surge of fluids into the well hole and, as a precaution, men were mustered to the lifeboat stations.

“At 1:05 p.m., gas escaped from the well and ignited below the rig,” Arco said. “The exact location, cause of the gas leak or source of ignition are not known at this time. The rig floor was evacuated immediately.”