Rig Explosion #2… Does anyone else see a pattern here?
Story Courtesy of BBC. To view full story please visit BBC.co.uk.
An explosion has torn through an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, west of the site of the blast in April that caused a huge oil spill. The blast, which threw 13 people into the water, was reported by a helicopter company at 0930 local time (1330 GMT).
The platform, which caught fire, was not producing oil or gas, the Department of Homeland Security said.
The platform is owned by Mariner Energy and is located off the Louisiana coast.
All 13 workers who fell into the Gulf are accounted for and have been transported to another platform by an oil support vessel, the Coast Guard said. One person is reportedly injured.
Before being rescued by the support boats, all 13 workers were given special immersion suits to protect them from the water, said Coast Guard chief petty officer John Edwards.
The latest explosion comes more than four months after an blast ripped through a Deepwater Horizon rig run by BP, causing about hundreds of million gallons of oil to be released into the Gulf of Mexico.
