Flow of natural gas stopped at rig off Louisiana coast

HOUSTON - The flow of natural gas has been stopped at a drilling rig off Louisiana's coast, authorities said Saturday, after a blowout last week left gas escaping from an underwater well.

The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) confirmed Saturday that the flow of natural gas had been stopped by pumping weighted drilling fluids into the well.

The well is located in the Gulf of Mexico, about 170 km southwest of Lafayette, a major city in south Louisiana.

BSEE said in a press release that while the flow has been stopped, there is still additional work required to secure the well, including setting up barriers to ensure no more natural gas is released. Barriers are also to ensure the safety of personnel during well operations.

BSEE will continue to review all procedures for efforts to secure the well, the release said.

The blowout happened Thursday morning when workers were drilling on the jack-up rig at the well site owned by EnVen Energy Ventures of Metairie. The rig was then evacuated and gas was diverted overboard as the crew worked to kill the well. No injuries were reported.

A platform that was producing oil and gas near the EnVen rig was shut down as a precaution. No visible sheen has been sighted and no pollution has reached the Gulf of Mexico, the company said.

Blowouts from wild natural gas wells are typically less of an environmental threat than offshore oil well blowouts like the one that led to the massive BP oil spill in April 2010, when BP's Deepwater Horizon drill platform caught fire and exploded, killing 11 workers and triggering one of the worst environmental disasters in the country.