The world's biggest offshore oil rig, owned by Brazil's state oil giant Petrobras, threatened to sink into the ocean spilling crude oil yesterday, a day after an explosion that apparently killed 10 people.
Three powerful blasts rocked the 40-story rig off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state on Thursday, causing a fire that killed at least one of the 175 workers aboard.
Nine workers were listed as missing, and Petrobras said on Thursday that there was little chance they had survived. Another worker was hospitalized with severe burns.
Public outrage mounted against accident-prone Petrobras yesterday as its biggest platform tilted into the sea. If the rig sinks it could dump crude and diesel into the open ocean, causing yet another environmental disaster.
Tense families of the workers also waited to see if the official death toll would rise when search and rescue operations resume later in the day.
"Petrobras is much more worried about cutting costs than ensuring the safety of its workers and of the environment," said Jandira Segalli, a federal deputy who met with officials after the explosion.
Union leaders called a nationwide protest yesterday to demand safer working conditions. They accused Petrobras of outsourcing work to inexperienced workers in order to cut costs, thus putting its employees at risk.
More than 80 oil workers have died in accidents over the last three years, according to the United Oil Workers Federation (FUP).
It was still not clear what caused the blasts at the platform, located in the Roncador oil field 125 km offshore in the Campos Basin, where 80 percent of Brazil's oil is produced.
But damage to one of the rig's hulls threatened to send the rig sinking into the ocean.
"If the degree of listing increases we are going to lose the platform," Petrobras President Henri Philippe Reichstul said in a video conference on Thursday. "It will only be clear by tomorrow [yesterday] morning."
The immense structure was listing three times more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa, according to engineers, and appeared on the verge of lurching into the sea. If it did, at least half of the 1,200m3 of diesel and 300m3 of crude stored on the rig could spill.
Five boats are standing by to collect the oil, but they can only hold half of the total amount stored there.
The P-36 rig can produce up to 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day, making it the world's biggest platform, but after starting operations last year, it was only pumping out 80,000 bpd, or 5 percent of Brazil's total daily output.
All production was halted and Petrobras said it could lose US$50 million a month with the rig out of operation.
Petrobras' stock sank 6.8 percent and Brazil's currency weakened on Thursday on investor concerns that Petrobras will have to make up for lost production with more costly imports.
Petrobras has also caused a string of high-profile environmental disasters in recent years.
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