DEVELOPING: The Louisiana Coast Guard is responding to reports of an offshore oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

A spokesman for the Coast Guard told Fox News Radio that all of the crew members on the rig are alive and have been safely accounted for.

The rig is reportedly owned by Mariner Energy.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said the blast was reported by a commercial helicopter company about 9:30 a.m. CDT on Thursday.

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

Authorities have not confirmed whether oil has spilled into the ocean.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/02/oil-rig-reportedly-explodes-louisiana-coast/

Here we go again.........

Whaaaaat???? Im going to flip on the news...at this point why dont they take the ceo of B.P. and shove his head in the pipe to stop the leak

Perhaps for the first time ever Hussein the Obamanable was right. Maybe there should be a moratorium on off shore drilling. We will see what happens with this rig, HOPEfully it will go away quickly with little to no damage to the gulf.

No, Hussein the Incompetent is NOT right ... this is very much like the feeling I got the morning of 9/11 when I turned on the news after the first plane had impacted the WTC ... I thought it was possible it was an accident since a B-24 had flown into the Empire State Bldg during WWII because of fog, but when I saw the second plane nose into the second undamaged tower, I knew we were at war - that doesn't 'just happen' - TWICE ... and oil rigs don't 'accidentally' explode - TWICE ... Hussein is too incompetent to understand we're still in a state of WAR because it's not about HIM ...

not sure... maybe it is about him, proving he has to be right...that's how many now? 2 in the gulf, 1 in china, and 1 in Michigan?

He is right about this, pull your head out of you butt and try smelling coffee.

So how come there's nothing on the news yet about this ... ? Oh - you wanna 'splain ezzackly WHY Hussein's 'right' ... ?

Just a question....aren't the safety inspections and guidelines for these rigs done by OSHA?

No. They're SUPPOSED to be done by the USCG, but that doesn't apply to NON-American-flagged rigs ...

so who regulates them? If it effects the US.....wouldn't the US have something to do with it?

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/02/rescue-efforts-underway-after-oil-rig-accident-in-gulf/?hpt=T1

says the workers are safe

Your thinking acts of terrorism?

i'm thinking obama

NEW ORLEANS, La. – An offshore petroleum platform exploded and was burning Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles off the Louisiana coast, west of the site where BP's undersea well spilled after a rig explosion.

The Coast Guard said no one was killed in the explosion, which was spotted by a commercial helicopter flying over the site Thursday morning. All 13 people aboard the rig have been accounted for, with one injury. The extent of the injury was not known.

They were rescued from the water by an offshore service vessel, the Crystal Clear, said Coast Guard Cmdr. She said they were taken to a nearby platform. All were being flown to the Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma to be checked over.

"Thirteen people were seen huddled together in the water wearing gumby suits or immersion suits, water protection suits, so we were able to confirm that all people were accounted for," Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer John Edwards said.

Seven Coast Guard helicopters, two airplanes and three cutters were dispatched to the scene from New Orleans, Houston and Mobile, Ala., Ben-Iesau said. She said authorities do not know whether oil was leaking from the site.

The platform, known as Vermilion Oil Platform 380, was owned by Mariner Energy of Houston, according to a homeland security operations update obtained by The Associated Press. The platform was not producing oil and gas, according to the operations report.

Melissa Schwartz, spokeswoman for Bureau of Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement, said the platform was authorized to produce oil and gas at this water depth but had not been recently in active production.

"There were ongoing maintenance activities underway," she said, adding it was in approximately 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.

A call to the company seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Mariner Energy focuses on oil and gas exploration and production in 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.

Apache spokesman Bob Dye said the platform is in shallow water. A company report said the well was drilled in the third quarter of 2008 in 340 feet of water.

Responding to an oil spill in shallow water is much easier than in deep water, 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 Friday, BP was expected to begin the process of removing the cap and failed blowout 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.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_rig_explosion

An offshore petroleum rig exploded and was burning Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay.

A spokesman for the Coast Guard told Fox News Radio that all 13 crew members on the rig are alive and have been safely accounted for. One person was injured in the blast, though the extent of that worker's injury was not known.

The rig, which is in about 2,500 feet of water, is owned by Mariner Energy of Houston and located 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Thursday that the platform was not an active production site.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said the blast was reported by a commercial helicopter company about 9:30 a.m. CDT on Thursday.

Seven Coast Guard helicopters, two airplanes and three cutters were dispatched to the scene from New Orleans, Houston and Mobile, Ala. The Coast Guard said some of those from the rig were spotted in emergency flotation devices.

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

Authorities have not confirmed whether oil was leaking from the site.

"We obviously have response assets ready for deployment should we receive reports of pollution in the water," Gibbs said.

The Deepwater Horizon rig leased by BP was in about 5,000 feet of water when it exploded and sank in April, killing 11 workers and triggering a leak of about 206 million gallons of oil.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/02/oil-rig-reportedly-explodes-louisiana-coast/

Its on FOX, and on the local news sites here.

its on the first page of yahoo,, Im sure its on cable too,,

thank goodness everyone got off safe,,,

It's on the Yahoo and CNN sites too. Half the time stuffs posted on the sites but not on Air.

The Minerals Management Services of the Dept of the Interior - or whatever 'The UN' changed its name to after 'DeepWater Horizon' ... the United States MMS does have regulatory power and is the agency responsible (until 'The UN' put his moratorium in place) for leasing all federal lands on-shore, near-shore, and offshore to US and foreign companies for drilling.