BP resumes oil containment efforts after short outage caused by lightning strike

British oil giant BP resumed its oil containment operations in the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday after an earlier lightning strike caused a fire on board the ship capturing oil from the undersea gusher and led to suspension of the oil containment system.

The Discoverer Enterprise resumed containment operations at 2: 15 p.m. Tuesday, BP said in a statement.

It said the U.S. Coast Guard gave authorization for the operation to resume at 1:40 p.m. after the ship's crew completed safety and operational assurance inspections.

The shut-down of the containment system was a "precautionary move designed to protect the health and safety of the crew during the incident," the company said.

There were no injuries and all safety systems operated as designed, it said.

The fire on the Discoverer Enterprise was spotted at about 9:30 a.m. and quickly extinguished, BP said in a press release issued earlier Tuesday.

BP's oil containment system is siphoning about 630,000 gallons of oil a day through a cap on top of the well to the Discover Enterprise.

Source: Xinhua