Marathon Oil Company; Upper Cook Inlet, Alaska

Upper Cook Inlet, Alaska | 1987-Dec-21

Initial Notification: At approximately 2000 on December 20, 1987, there was a natural gas blow out on Marathon Oil Company's Steelhead platform in the McArthur River oil and gas field in Upper Cook Inlet. At about 2320, the plume of gas caught fire, with flames erupting over 300 feet. The fire burned throughout the next several days. Those personnel not previously evacuated were immediately moved off the platform. The Steelhead is a relatively new platform and had only drilled two other gas wells and one oil well, all of which were shut-in prior to platform evacuation. Within hours after the first report of the blowout, the U.S. Coast Guard mobilized a fixed-wing aircraft and a helicopter from the Kodiak air station, and the Coast Guard cutter Sedge from Homer to the scene for possible rescue and pollution-control activities. USCG district 17.