An explosion ripped through an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, setting it on fire and forcing all the thirteen workers on board the oil platform into the water, the US Coast Guard said Thursday.
According to Coast Guard officials, the explosion occurred on a Mariner Energy-owned oil rig, located about 90 miles south of Vermillion Bay on Louisiana's coast.
The Coast Guard said no one was killed in the incident, adding that all the 13 workers on board the rig at the time of the explosion have been accounted for.
Helicopters, boats and aircraft have been rushed to the scene of the explosion, which was first spotted by a commercial helicopter flying over the site Thursday morning.
It is not yet clear what caused the explosion on board the rig, which according to Coast Guard officials was not producing oil at the time of the accident.
The oil workers floating in the Gulf after the explosion have since been rescued by an offshore service vessel, the Crystal Clear, and taken to a nearby platform.
The rescued workers are currently being airlifted to Terrebonne General Medical Center for medical attention. One rig worker was reportedly injured in the explosion, but the actual extent of his injuries are not yet clear.
According to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement records, the rig is located in about 340 feet of water.
The Vermillion 380 oil field, where the rig is located, is owned by Mariner Energy. The company has reportedly drilled five wells there in 2008 and 2009.
Thursday's explosion came just over four months after another explosion sunk a Deepwater Horizon rig run by BP in the Gulf of Mexico on 20th April, killing 11 oil workers and spilling millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf.
The oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon rig caused the worst-ever ecological disaster in the US, and the explosion on the Mariner Energy rig comes as the US states surrounding the Gulf are still cleaning up the earlier spill.
Investigations suggested that the explosion on board the Deepwater Horizon rig was triggered by the failure of the well's blowout preventer. More details regarding that explosion will emerge once the investigators get to examine the damaged equipment.
Various US agencies and BP succeeded in their efforts to cap the damaged well on 15th July, preventing the flow of further oil into the Gulf. But environmentalists say that the oil spill from the BP rig would hurt the region for years.
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