Details just coming in. Let’s really hope this isn’t even close to as bad as the first. (Update: Not even close. It was on a barge and headed to a scrap yard. Holds 20,000 gallons of fuel, not thought to be leaking.)
This one isn’t out at sea but in a narrow inland channel east west of New Orleans. (South of Morgan city.)
A second oil rig has overturned in the Gulf of Mexico, coastguard officials have said.
The rig overturned in inland waters near Morgan City off Louisiana on America’s southern coast.
It will hamper efforts to clear up oil from a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico which is starting to ooze ashore in the southeastern US, threatening birds and other wildlife along fragile islands and barrier marshes and putting one of the world’s richest seafood grounds in peril.
And here’s a good story about what they’re trying to do to stop the spillage at the first site:
BP was today towing a second drilling rig into position as it fought to contain an oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.
The British oil group said that it was moving the new rig to a position close to the Deepwater Horizon, which exploded six days ago leading to the presumed death of 11 workers.
[…]
The second rig, Development Driller III, will be used to drill a so-called “relief well” to intercept the leak. It will be used to inject cement and mud to block the flow of oil at the site, about 42 miles off the coast of Louisiana.
Let’s hope it works. Here’s a photo of the second rig:
