5
injured as oil rig explodes
By Richard Charan, South Bureau
Trinidad Express
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
03 18 07
Five oil workers caught in an inferno
sparked by a natural gas explosion ran for more
than a mile through a forest road in the dark to
escape what they felt would have been certain death.
They helped each other remove burning
clothes and boots, leaving behind scraps of flesh,
the strong carrying the weak for half-an-hour.
They found help at an oil facility
deep in the Guapo Fields-where Petrotrin has several
oil wells in production.
It took close to an hour for ambulances
and fire fighters to find the location.
At the San Fernando General Hospital
last night being treated were Vivian Meade, 24,
of Cayenne Trace, Santa Flora; Dave Namdeo, 26,
of Gowers Well Road, Fyzabad; Naresh Bridgelal,
of Bhakensingh Avenue, Grant Road Rousillac; Ronald
Seepersad, 42, and Colin Mohammed, 24, of Standard
Road, Fyzabad.
Namdeo, the supervisor, and Seepersad,
a floor-man, were last night listed in critical
condition at the Intensive Care Unit.
They were burnt over 75 per cent
of their bodies.
The other three men were with other
patients in Ward Three. Their relatives demanded
last night that they also be given specialised care
and a doctor who saw the men agreed that they needed
intensive care.
The five are employed with an oil
service contractor at Palmiste, San Fernando.
Acting Medical Chief of Staff at
the hospital Dr Anand Chatoorgoon assured that if
the condition of the men on Ward Three deteriorated,
they would be transferred to ICUs at another facility.
He said there were only three ICU
beds at the San Fernando hospital and all were occupied.
Chatoorgoon said: "At this
time, they are holding their own. We are looking
at them closely, and they are being cared for by
a burns specialist. Their long term prognosis, I
cannot say." A statement from State-owned oil
company Petrotrin said the men were caught in a
fire on the ALTEC Rig No 4, while servicing the
well at Erin No 80 at Grand Ravine.
What sparked the explosion is the
subject of an investigation involving the Fire Service,
Petrotrin and the Labour and Energy Ministries.
The men were using a process called
gas lift to extract oil from a non-producing well
when it blew up.
The process involved injecting gas
into the oil reservoir.
The fire burnt an area 300 feet
in radius, the heat buckling the oil rig and destroying
a company pick up van, tool box, and a caravan in
which the men stayed during their shift.
The only people for miles around
were two watchmen employed to monitor equipment
at Lease Operator Ltd's Fiscalising Facility in
the Guapo Fields. They told co-workers that they
heard the screams of the men long before they saw
them coming.
Seepersad's wife, Cintra, 40, said
last night: "Before he stopped talking he told
me how they all ran from the fire but stuck together,
helping one another out. Now I am just praying for
him. But all he is thinking about is if his friends
will make it. Everybody thought it was over,"
she said.
Seepersad was the head-man on the
jobsite. Meade's brother, Andre, said: "He
was in too much pain to say what happened. He was
working hard to build a house for our mother.
He had a daughter to take care of.
So his boss better do everything to make sure he
will be okay."
Namdeo's wife, Denise, said she
wanted her husband home "but his whole body
is burnt so bad. He was the supervisor on the rig.
He had a company vehicle. But he didn't even have
time to use it. It was fire everywhere". Bridgelal's
two infant children, Narin, four, and Narendra,
six, played in the sand outside their home waiting
for him to return from work yesterday evening.
Relatives said Bridgelal was working
the 3 a.m.to 11 p.m. shift when the rig exploded.
It was his first night at the site.
Bridgelal's father died in an oilwell
accident several years ago.
His mother was taken to hospital
with a heart ailment last week. She was not told
of her son's injuries, his nephew said.
Petrotrin's manager corporate communications
Arnold Corneal said the area around the rig has
been cordoned off and there was little risk to people
because of the remote location.
He
said the area would be monitored until there was
no longer a natural gas risk.
rcharan@trinidadexpress.com
Trinidad
Express
Tuesday, March 13th 2007
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©2007 Trinidad Express. All Rights Reserved.
