Offshore Incident Archive

The specific source(s) of discharge at the MC-20 site are not fully known. However, because the discharge volume is greater than can reasonably be accounted for by oil released from sediment only, oil is most likely emanating from one or more of the 25 wells.

Taylor had originally been ordered by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) in October 2007 to permanently plug and abandon all the wells by June 2008. 

Based on data collected from nearly daily overflights since September 2014, oil sheens have been observed and reported by Taylor Energy to be as large as 1.5 miles wide and 14 miles long, with an average of 1 mile wide and 5.5 miles long, covering an average area of 8 square miles. Over this period, the daily volume of oil discharging from the MC-20 site has fluctuated between a low of less than one barrel of oil (1 barrel = 42 gallons) to a high of 55 barrels (2,329 gallons). The average reported daily oil volume on the sea surface over the past seven months has been over 2 barrels (84 gallons); the volume on over 75 days was greater than 1 barrel, including 23 days of volume greater than 3.8 barrels (160 gallons) and 4 days greater than 35 barrels (1,470 gallons). These spill size and volume estimates are based on reports submitted by Taylor Energy's contractors to the National Response Center (NRC).

On October 27, 2013, a fatal incident occurred on the “A” Platform, of Vermilion Block 200, Lease number OCS-G 9500. This location is approximately 53 miles south of Lake Charles, Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico.

At approximately 7:05 p.m., a 130 ton dry oil storage tank skid assembly, consisting of one (1) 16 feet diameter x 85 feet long horizontal cylindrical tank and two (2) 83 feet long flare booms mounted to and extending away from the skid at a 17-degree angle, toppled over and fell 115 feet into the Gulf of Mexico from the Vermilion Block 200 Platform “A”.