For all the people who think we need LESS regulation on oil drilling: Congrats!
NEW ORLEANS â?? An offshore oil platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday morning, injuring one worker, the United States Coast Guard said.
The New York Times
The production platform, which was operated by the Houston-based Mariner Energy, was positioned in relatively shallow waters â?? 340 feet deep â?? and to the west of where a drilling rig leased by BP blew up and sank this spring, killing 11 people and touching off an environmental calamity.
All 13 members of the work crew on board Thursday were accounted for, the Coast Guard said, though the injured workerâ??s condition was not immediately known. The crew were pulled from the water by a civilian boat that had been in the area, the Crystal Clear, and taken to a nearby rig, Coast Guard officials said.
Rescuers, who arrived about an hour after receiving reports of the explosion, took the crew to Terrebone General Medical Center in Houma, La.
It was unclear whether the platform was in danger of foundering, or whether the explosion had set off any oil leaks.
Government officials said the Mariner platform had not been involved in any recent oil and gas production, and that it had been undergoing maintenance work. The platform was not affected by the Obama administrationâ??s recent ban on deepwater oil drilling, imposed in the wake of the BP spill.
The Coast Guard received two calls of an oil rig in flames at 9:19 a.m. central time on Thursday, prompting officials to scramble seven helicopters to reach the site of the explosion, located 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay in Louisiana.
Rescuers reached the scene at 10:30 a.m., and by 11 a.m., there were seven Coast Guard helicopters on the scene, five from New Orleans and two from Houston, and five Cutters.
Mariner Energy, which describes itself as one of the largest independent oil and gas companies in the Gulf, has 195 active drilling leases.
A spokesman for Mariner Energy, whose stock slid on Wall Street following news of the blast, told CNN that the platform was not engaged in any active drilling.
Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said that President Obama was in a national security meeting in the White House Situation Room when news of the explosion began to circulate, and he was not certain whether the president had been informed.
â??We obviously have response assets ready for deployment should we receive reports of pollution in the water,â?? Mr. Gibbs said, during a regular televised briefing.
He noted that the experience gained from the BP oil spill could prove useful in dealing with the latest incident, but said that he did not know who the highest ranking official near the scene might be.
Source: An Oil Platform Burns, Blanketing the Gulf With Angst - The New York Times