Equipment Fails on GoM Drilling Rig

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) is responding to an equipment failure on board the Deepwater Nautilus semisubmersible drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 100 miles south of Fourchon, La.

The offshore oil and gas operator, Shell Offshore Inc., reported that on June 9 during well operations, the rig’s traveling block fell. The traveling block is a large piece of equipment that supports the top drive which rotates drill pipe.

Shell is monitoring the well. There are no reports of injuries to personnel. There is no reported pollution. The project is limited to drilling; no production was affected by the incident.

BSEE engineers and inspectors have been discussing the on-going response with Shell and will travel offshore to the rig to investigate as soon as weather allows.

BSEE will investigate the incident. 

Deepwater Nautilus is a fifth-generation, RBS-8D design, ultra-deepwater, column-stabilized, semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit, designed to drill subsea wells for oil exploration and production. She was designed by Reading & Bates RBS-8M and built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2000 at the Ulsan shipyard in South Korea. Deepwater Nautilus can operate at water depths up to 8,000 feet (2,400 m) and has drilling depth down to 30,000 feet (9,100 m).