The world's largest offshore oil rig sank on Tuesday despite desperate rescue efforts and began spewing oil off the coast of Brazil five days after powerful blasts ripped through the platform killing 10 people.
Rough seas forced Brazil's state oil giant Petrobras to abandon salvage operations early on Tuesday.
Less than an hour after divers had fled the scene, the 40-story structure tipped sideways and sank below the waterline within 10 minutes.
Diesel oil bubbled to the surface creating an extensive but very fine slick and Petrobras said all 395,000 gallons(1.5 million liters) of crude and diesel stored on and under the rig are likely to spill into the ocean as pipelines rupture and tanks explode.
"We lost the platform, it sank," said Petrobras president Henri Philippe Reichstul, visibly worn-out after five tense days of rescue work." Without a doubt, the sea conditions accelerated the process."
Television showed survivors working on the rescue boats broke down in tears as they watched their rig quietly slip into the turquoise sea.
The giant green helicopter pad was the last part of the platform to disappear.Three explosions ripped through the rig off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state last week, killing 10 of the 175 workers aboard.
One worker remains in critical condition with burns on 98 percent of his body.
On Tuesday, 1,580 gallons of diesel stored in tanks leaked out of the rig as it headed to the ocean floor almost a mile below."
It is inevitable that almost all of the crude that is in the pipelines and the diesel in the tanks will leak," said Carlos Eduardo Bellot, a local Petrobras manager.
The company said it is applying chemicals to break up the slicks and lining up absorption barriers. More barriers and boats are standing by to contain bigger spills, though high seas have made it difficult to use them.
(Dragon.net 03/21/2001)
