Fire reported at Rig 7ES

Kay Cashman

There was a fire July 17 on Nabors Alaska Drilling Inc.’s Rig 7ES while the rig was being transported from drill site 18 to D pad in the Prudhoe Bay field.

BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. spokesman Ronnie Chappell told PNA that the cause of the fire, which was reported at 10:20 p.m., was unknown.

Two Nabors employees received minor injuries in the incident. Both were treated at the Prudhoe Bay medical facility and then flown to Providence Hospital in Anchorage where they were treated and released.

The fire “appears to have originated in the system used to move the rig from place to place,” Chappell said “The hydraulic fluid in that system caught fire. Several large tires on the rig also caught fire and burst.”

Fire response teams from both sides of the field helped contain the fire which was extinguished by 1:40 a.m. July 18. Chappell said fire crews stayed on the scene “to cool hot spots.” A spill response team was “mobilized and was on scene to clean up and contain spilled fluids from the rig and fire fighting response,” he said.

Fire fighting foam “reached a lake adjacent to the scene. The response team used boom to contain the foam so that it could be recovered by vacuum truck,” Chappell said. The spill was estimated to be five gallons.

Nabors has put together an investigation team, he said, to determine the cause of the fire. Field operator BP, the builders of the rig and the company that manufactured the components used in the