NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) — The Coast Guard is backing off its earlier report that an oil sheen about a mile long was spreading following a platform explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
Coast Guard Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau said Thursday afternoon that crews was unable to confirm the oil sheen. The Coast Guard says platform owner Mariner Energy reported a sheen about a mile long and 100 feet wide. But the company has said in a statement that an initial flyover didn’t find an oil spill.
Ben-lesau says the fire on the platform has been put out. All 13 crew members were rescued from the water, and none were hurt.
The offshore petroleum platform exploded and was burning Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico about 102 miles south of Vermilion Bay on the central Louisiana coast.
Coast Guard Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau says seven Coast Guard helicopters, two airplanes and three cutters were dispatched to the scene from New Orleans, Houston and Mobile, Ala.
Ben-Iesau said all 13 people were rescued from the water by an offshore service vessel, the Crystal Clear, and taken to a nearby platform. All were being flown to the Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma for examination.
The Department of Homeland Security said the platform was known as Vermilion Oil Platform 380 and is in 340 feet of water.
Mariner said the cause of the explosion and fire had not been determined. The company’s statement said production recently averaged about 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas a day and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate.
It was unclear whether the platform was in operation at the time of the incident.
“This platform was authorized to produce oil and gas at this water depth. The facility has not been recently in active production; there were ongoing maintenance activities under way,” said Melissa Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
Ben-Iesau says some of those from the rig were spotted in emergency flotation devices.
Mariner Energy focuses on oil and gas exploration and production company focused on the Gulf of Mexico. In April, Apache Corp., another independent petroleum company, announced plans to buy Mariner in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $3.9 billion, including the assumption of about $1.2 billion of Mariner’s debt. That deal is pending.
An Apache report said the well was drilled in the third quarter of 2008 in 340 feet of water.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama was in a national security meeting and did not know whether Obama had been informed of the explosion.
“We obviously have response assets ready for deployment should we receive reports of pollution in the water,” Gibbs said.
Responding to an oil spill in shallow water is much easier than in deepwater, where crews depend on remote-operated vehicles access equipment on the sea floor.
The platform is about 200 miles west of BP’s blown out Macondo well. On Thursday, BP was expected to begin the process of removing the cap and failed blow-out preventer, another step toward completion of a relief well that would complete the choke of the well. The BP-leased rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, killing 11 people and setting off a massive oil spill.
Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer John Edwards in New Orleans said the rescued workers were wearing protective gear called gumby suits.
“These guys had the presence of mind, used their training to get into those gumby suits before they entered the water. It speaks volumes to safety training and the importance of it because beyond getting off the rig there’s all the hazards of the water such as hypothermia and things of that nature.”
Associated Press writers Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans, Eria Werner and Gerry Bodlander in Washington and Chris Kahn in New York contributed.
 
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