Papa ray, I used to work on rigs – that sounds very believable, in fact him saying that the cementing hadn’t started yet makes more sense than anything – heavy cement in the wellbore should have neutralized any pressure.

When that much gas decompresses, the expansion itself can generate enough static electricity to ignite the mixture. Remember all you need is a single spark, and boom.
On that rig, you would have had a nature-made fuel air bomb. The only surprise is that so many men were able to escape.

WUWT has a series of pictures from a .pdf file I’d been sent earlier in the week. It will give everyone an idea of the scope of this fire.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/05/01/the-gulf-oil-rig-explosion-on-the-scene-photos/

The final factor that convinces me that this report really was on that rig was his closing explanation:

“Every now and then you can’t win against Mother Nature”

Anyone who’s ever struggled with nature knows that’s the absolute truth. Only people who’ve never matched themselves against her think that they can win every time.