By
The Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - One of the world's biggest oil rigs sank in the South Atlantic yesterday, and the state oil company Petrobras warned that more than 300,000 gallons of diesel fuel on board was likely to spill.
The 40-story-tall rig, crippled and listing after an explosion last week, "shifted suddenly" in heavy seas 75 miles off the coast early yesterday morning, the company said. Workers who had been trying to save it gave up and fled.
At about 10:30 a.m., the rig tipped over and went down in about 10 minutes. Film footage showed the platform descending until only the green heliport was visible above the waves. Then it went under, as oil workers, many sobbing, looked on from a nearby ship.
"It's at the bottom of the sea," said Carlos Aurelio Miranda, a Petrobras spokesman.
Petrobras Chief Executive Henri Philippe said there was a "fine film of oil" on the spot where the rig went down but that the company was ready to contain it.
He said containers holding 312,000 gallons of diesel fuel would collapse under water pressure on the sea bottom at a depth of 4,455 feet. Also, the rig had 78,000 gallons of crude - most of it in hoses between the wells and the rig. Those hoses were attached when the rig went down and could break, he said.
Reichstul said the oil and gas wells themselves were sealed before the rig was evacuated and could not leak.
"There is a plan in place to protect the environment," Reichstul said. "We are not terribly worried about the environmental question."
Petrobras had 11 ships on the spot to combat a spill, said Irani Varela, the company's safety and environment chief. Four were to skim oil off the surface, four others carried 20 miles of floating oil barriers and three had chemicals to break down the oil.
Varela said, however, that the barriers would have little effect in high seas, where swells yesterday were 6 feet high. He said the cleanup would take up to four days, but that winds and tide suggested the oil would be carried out to sea.
Navy divers, engineers and foreign consultants had been working for days, trying to salvage the gigantic rig after Thursday's explosion and fire. The accident killed at least two workers and left eight others missing and presumed dead. A supporting pillar was knocked out, and the platform tilted and began sinking slowly off the coast of Macae, 120 miles northeast of Rio.
Workers tried to keep it afloat with nitrogen and compressed air. After partly righting, the platform began to sink again Monday, when high winds and rough seas hindered rescue efforts.
The rig, built in Italy and later modified in Canada, was the top producer in the oil-rich Campos Basin, which accounts for most of the 1.5 million barrels of oil Brazil produced daily.
