Damaged Gulf of Mexico oil rig to be inspected

Updated: 16:36, Tuesday, 28 September 2010

US Coast Guard helicopters have carried out another inspection of the US-owned oil and gas platform that went on fire in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday.

1 of 1 Gulf of Mexico Oil rig crew managed to escape
Gulf of Mexico
Oil rig crew managed to escape

The fire on the facility, owned by Mariner Energy, burned for several hours before it was extinguished.

However, the company has said it broke out near living quarters and was not caused by an explosion.

The crew of 13 managed to escape without injury and initial reports say there is no sign of an oil spill.

'The boats and the aircraft on scene cannot see a sheen,' US Coast Guard Captain Peter Troedsson told a news conference in New Orleans.

Coast Guard helicopters inspected the platform and surrounding ocean this morning.

The platform is located more than 145km south of Louisiana's Vermilion Bay, 320km west of BP's ruptured Macondo well. It is in relatively shallow water, 104m deep.

The platform's output is a small fraction of the 1.6m barrels of oil and 6.4bn cubic feet of gas the region produces on a daily basis.

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