Probe launched into fire on offshore platform in EnCana’s Deep Panuke project
by The Canadian Press
Spokesperson for operator says inquiry will examine why automatic fire suppression system failed
HALIFAX—An investigation has been launched into an electrical fire that resulted in the evacuation of personnel from the Deep Panuke natural gas production platform off Nova Scotia Jan. 19.
A spokeswoman for SBM Offshore, the platform operator, says the inquiry will include an examination of why the automatic fire suppression system failed to work.
Anne Guerin-Moens says firefighters still managed to quickly extinguish the small electrical fire.
She says the investigation will be carried out by the project’s owners, EnCana and Dutch-based SBM, and there is no firm deadline yet for when its findings will be available.
She says 46 people were temporarily evacuated from the platform, which is 250 kilometres southeast of Halifax, while firefighters extinguished the fire.
The offshore project had previously said it wants to produce natural gas by the middle of 2013, but Guerin-Moens says it’s too early to know if the fire will cause production delays.
