The Coast Guard says it is responding to a "loss of well control event" at an oil and gas platform 74 miles southwest of Port Fourchon, La., in the Gulf of Mexico.

According to Fuel Fix, an energy news resource supported by writers from the Houston Chronicle, the "decades-old" well had been inactive for 15 years, and on Tuesday was said to be " leaking slowly with relatively few hydrocarbons."

Energy Resources Technology Gulf of Mexico LLC reported the event, saying that a 4 mile-by-.75 mile "rainbow sheen" was visible in the gulf via flyover.

“It is actively leaking natural gas,” Coast Guard spokesman Jonathan Lally confirmed to NBC News on Tuesday night.

http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/07/oil_well_leaking_into_gulf_of.html

zeroed for market purposes, but there's nothing inactive about it - that cast iron wellhead assembly and steel casing are eating away daily from -- wait for it - salt water! People are always so shocked that when they put steel and iron in the ground or in the water, that eventually it rusts, and eventually, that rust leaves a hole.

Shocker.

Also tired of short cuts in plugging wells - there is supposed to be a blowout preventer through which "mud" heavy enough to stop circulation in the well is pumped in against pressure. Then, when pressure is zero, cement is pumped in for a permanent plug. What often happens is that cement is cheaper than heavy mud, so they skip the mud, with the old, "the cement will kill and plug in one step."

Nope.

I was in the wellhead business in a management position for more than a decade, and that equipment is very good when installed and maintained properly. Trouble is, people get involved, people who think a few thousand dollars is an amount of money that matters, so they take a shortcut. Often comes out okay, but not every time.

I'm sure that Talos is one of those boutique independents with no real assets, so they need to hope they can get it under control right away. Me, I don't think any company with less than $100 billion in cash or bond on hand ought to be allowed to do business - the risks are that huge. The majors sell their junk to these small outfits to escape liability for what's coming. I nearly feel for the little fellows, but they're grownups, and they endanger the rest of us.

Yep, they're privately held, and rotten iron is the problem:

http://www.talosenergyllc.com/news/