AN oil platform in Azerbaijan operated by BP suffered a well blowout and a huge gas around a yr and a half before the Gulf of Mexico spill, US diplomatic cables revled today.
The British energy giant was lucky it managed to evacuate its 212 workers safely after the incident, which led to two fields being shut and output being dramatically cut, according to the cables relsed by website Wikis.
The news came as the United States filed a lawsuit against BP and eight other companies for billions of dollars damages over the devastating Gulf oil spill, the worst in US history.
In the Azerbaijan incident, BP suffered the blowout in September 2008, as well as the gas which the firm acknowledged at the time, according to the cables, revled in Britain's Guardian newspaper.
"Due to the blowout of a gas-injection well there was 'a lot of mud' on the platform, which BP would analyse to help find the cause of the blowout and the gas ," said one of the US dis.
Another cable revled that the company had a narrow escape after the gas did not ch fire.
"Given the explosive potential, BP was quite fortunate to have been able to evacuate everyone safely and to prevent any gas ignition," said the cable.
"[BP's then hd of Azerbaijan, Bill] Schrader said although the story hadn't caught the press's attention, it had the full focus of the [government of Azerbaijan], which was losing '40-50 million dollars ch day'."
The and blowout happened at the huge Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) field in the Caspian S, just one of BP's operations in Azerbaijan, where it has a dominant position in the energy market.
It occurred on the Central Azeri platform, and the first signs of a problem were detected when bubbles appred in the waters around the site, said one cable.
"Shortly therfter, a related gas-injection well for Central Azeri had a blowout, expelling water, mud and gas," said the dis.
BP declined to comment on the incident, the Guardian reported. It told the paper that BP "enjoys the continued support and goodwill of the government and the people of Azerbaijan".
Details of the blowout emerged in cables that are part of a cache of around 250,000 US diplomatic dis, which were to whistleblower website Wikis and are being slowly relsed.
The Azerbaijan happened around 20 months before the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which sent nrly five million barrels of oil gushing into the s.
The blast killed 11 workers, and the resulting of oil fouled the environmentally fragile Gulf coasts for three months before it was capped.
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