Spills

Upper cook inlet, alaska

Marathon Oil Company; Upper Cook Inlet, Alaska · NOAAORR-6537

issued
1987-12-21 00:00Z
status
cancelled 1988-01-04 00:00Z
self-cancels
1988-01-04 00:00Z
authority
NOAA OR&R
sea
Gulf of Alaska
position
61.009, -150.737
source
incidentnews · first seen 2026-09-03 15:09Z

Original warning text

Marathon Oil Company; Upper Cook Inlet, Alaska.
Upper Cook Inlet, Alaska.
1. 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.
2. COMMODITY: NATURAL GAS.
3. POSITION 61.009N 150.737W. NOAA INCIDENTNEWS 6537: https://incidentnews.noaa.gov/incident/6537

This area · spills & pollution incidents

111 within 180 nm since 1985 · 5 in the last 12 months · 1 in force now

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Spills

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