Ten dead in India oil field fire (Offshore Platform)

[theHandpuppet]

Wow... take a look at the pic. It's too bad there are a number of confirmed dead, but I also have a couple of questions:

1) What, if any, affect might this have on the surrounding ocean environment, and...
2) Will this be another excuse to raise oil prices or is this supply for (Indian) domestic use only?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4721933.stm

Ten dead in India oil field fire
Many workers jumped off the platform

The number of confirmed deaths in Wednesday's oil platform fire off the western coast of India has risen to 10. However, the navy says more than 350 workers have been rescued. Some people are still reported trapped or missing.

The platform, in India's most important oil field, was completely destroyed in the fire, which emergency services managed to extinguish late Wednesday.

It is still not clear what caused the fire. Some reports say an oil rig collided with the platform.

More...

[htuttle]

1. Even if it was for domestic consumption in India...

...it would mean that India would try to buy that oil somewhere else, so it could still raise the price all over.

It looks like that platform was responsible for about 110,000 barrels a day. That's not huge in the vast scheme of things (it's less than an hour of US consumption), but still significant.

[theHandpuppet]

2. There's no word about whether oil is still being lost from the rig itself

Which automatically makes me wonder if we're looking at an environmental disaster as well. Anyone know?

BTW, your point about the oil is a good one. If they lose 4+ weeks of oil production from that rig they will simply have to buy it elsewhere, which still drives up the price of oil.