The Piper Alpha platform explosion is expected to cost insurers more than $1 billion in claims, a spokesman for the Lloyd's of London insurance market said today.

David Larner, a spokesman for the Lloyd's insurance market, said the insurance costs "look as though they could top a billion dollars. It would make it the largest loss in the North Sea and probably the largest loss on any one unit."

A unit is one item, as opposed to the myriad of related claims prompted from wider disasters.

The rig was under contract to BP.The rig was drilling but was not in production, according to Greg Panegos, spokesman for its owner, Transocean Ltd, in Houston.

Also today, more than 100 contract workers refurbishing oil rigs in the North …

The explosion happened last night at the rig, which is 52 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, while 126 workers were aboard, said coast guard senior chief petty officer Mike O'Berry. The rig was still burning this morning.At least 11 people are missing and seven injured after an explosion and fire at an oil drilling platform off the coast of Louisiana.O'Berry said many workers who escaped the rig were being brought to land on a workboat while authorities searched the Gulf of Mexico for any signs of lifeboats.



Tags: oil rig explosion, deepwater horizon, rigzone, transocean