Mariner Energy Oil Rig Explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, Vermilion Bay

On Thursday, September 2nd, a Gulf of Mexico oil rig exploded. It send its crew of 13 scrambling into the water. The rig is 92 miles off the coast of Louisiana, the Coast Guard said. Another oil industry vessel that was nearby plucked the crew members out of the water after the incident. The vessel then brought them to a nearby oil platform.

Coast Guard helicopters were in the process of flying them to a hospital, one of the workers suffered a minor injury.

In order to float better, and to be more visible, the crew had donned brightly colord survival gear knows as "Gumby suits."

The explosion at this rig is reminiscent of the April 20, 2010 explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig. This explosion caused a huge three month oil spill which became the nation's worst off-shore environmental disaster in history. Eleven workers died in that incident, and clean up efforts are still in place.

With today's explosion, it's not clear whether it was the result of a blowout or whether it had caused any leaks of crude oil. As well, no one died or was injured seriously. The rig belonged to Mariner Energy, which describes itself as "one of the leading independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in the Gulf of Mexico."

However, I don't think that this incident will help their reputation, as they have had several incidents in the past year. Its safety record is not what we would call excellent. Last year, it was fined $55,000 for two incidents that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, this was indicated by records from the former Minerals Management Service.

The explosion was reported at 9:19 AM by a nearby rig. A helicopter that was also flying nearby confirmed the disaster as well. The platform was very different from BP's, it was not a deep water one, the water around it is about 340 feet deep whereas the water around the Deepwater Horizon was about 5,000 feet deep.

Today, White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, said that the federal government has "assets ready" if they must respond to any environmental problems resulting from the explosion of the oil platform off the coast of Louisiana.

Continue reading on the next page.


Environmentalists have already taken up this disaster to fight against oil drilling in the Gulf. Even if there is no oil spilling from this rig, incidents like this happen way to often.

There was an instant response to today's disaster, seven helicopters, two airplanes, and four boats were dispatched to the site immediately. As well, the decent weather helped aid the rescue of the workers.