Another Oil Rig exploaded in the Gulf of Mexico today

I just read that on the ABC email feed.

Gulf Oil Rig Explodes off La. Coast

Coast Guard: Offshore oil rig in Gulf of Mexico explodes; west of site of BP rig
An offshore oil rig has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, west of the site of the April blast that caused the massive oil spill. Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel says the blast was reported by a commercial helicopter company about 9:30 a.m. CDT 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 says it hasn't been determined whether the structure is a production platform or a drilling rig or whether workers were aboard. Ranel says smoke was reported but it is unclear whether the rig is still burning.

Waiting for political junkies and/or conservative or liberal reactionaries to turn this into a debate over sabotage or some political trickster speculation.

The heightened media awareness (due to prior BP oil leak-mismanagement) will milk this happening into something else. Apparently this rig produced no gas or oil.



So, apparently workers WERE aboard.

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."