Oil Rig Explodes Off Coast of Louisiana

Here we go again? I hope not.

Sun Herald: Blast rocks rig in Gulf


GRAND ISLE, La. -- The Coast Guard is responding to an explosion involving an offshore petroleum structure in the Gulf of Mexico.

Petty Officer Casey Ranel says the blast was reported by a commercial helicopter company about 9:30 a.m. today. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats are en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.

Ranel says it hasn’t been determined whether the structure is a production platform or a drilling rig or whether workers were aboard. Ranel says smoke was reported but it is unclear whether the rig is still burning.

SH

Then there is this from the New York Times:

NYT: Oil Rig Explodes in Gulf of Mexico, Coast Guard Says

A commercial helicopter company reported the blast around 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats were en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.

The Coast Guard said initial reports indicated all 13 crew members from the rig were in the water. One was injured, but there were no deaths.

The platform owned by Mariner Energy (NYSE:ME) is in about 2,500 feet of water, the Coast Guard said, and was not currently producing.

About 206 million gallons of oil from an undersea well spilled into the Gulf after BP's (NYSE:BP) Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.

NYT