Mariner Energy Platform Fire in Gulf is Out

(Dow Jones) - Coast Guard officials said late Thursday that they can see no oil sheen around the stricken Mariner Energy production platform hit by a fire earlier in the day that threw 13 workers into the Gulf of Mexico.

The workers were sent overboard by an explosion on the rig, about 100 miles south of Louisiana's Vermilion Bay, at 9:19 am. They were rescued and sent to the Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma, La. One of the 13 workers was injured, Coast Guard spokespeople said.

A fire aboard the offshore platform was extinguished after burning for about six hours.

Houston-based Mariner Energy said in a press release that no injuries had been reported, and that no oil or gas was seen spilled during an initial flyover.

There have been conflicting reports regarding a possible oil sheen resulting from the fire.

Mariner had told the Coast Guard earlier Thursday that it saw a sheen, but Capt. Peter Troedsson said in a news conference that personnel aboard Coast Guard vessels and aircraft aren't seeing it anymore.

Mariner said in a press release that automated shutoff equipment had "safely turned off the flow of oil and gas from the platform's seven producing wells before the fire occurred."

The company added that the cause of the fire "remains unknown" and that it is working with regulatory authorities conducting an investigation.

The Mariner Energy platform is one of 634 manned oil-and-gas platforms operating in the Gulf of Mexico. According to data posted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, the platform, installed in 1980, stands in water 340 feet deep and is manned around the clock. This is much shallower than the deep-water operations brought into the spotlight recently by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

An internal report by the agency said that the platform had about 100 barrels of oil stored on board. A water-blasting and painting crew was on board the platform when the fire occurred.

In the last week of August, the facility produced a daily average of 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas -- the equivalent of about 1,600 barrels of oil -- and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate, according to Mariner, which is the sole owner of the platform.