NEW ORLEANS, La—The Coast Guard is responding to a rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
The explosion on Vermilion rig 380 happened around 9:30 a.m. Thursday. A Coast Guard spokesman said 12 of the 13 people on the rig have now been rescued from the water. One person is still missing.
Seven Coast Guard choppers, two planes and four boats from New Orleans and Houston responded to the scene.
The rig located south of Louisiana’s Vermilion Bay is owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy. “Mariner Energy is among the largest independent oil and gas companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico,” according to its website. At year-end 2009, the company had interests in nearly 350 Federal offshore leases, with more than 110 of those in development.
The Vermilion rig is west of the site of the April BP blast that caused a massive oil spill.
