New One

There was a new oil well platform explosion in the Gulf Of Mexico -- not far from the Louisiana Coast. Nice, don't you think?

Oh yeah, it's spilling oil

"All 13 members of the work crew on board Thursday were accounted for, the Coast Guard said, though there were conflicting reports about whether one worker had been injured. The crew were pulled from the water by a civilian boat that had been in the area, the Crystal Clear, and taken to a nearby rig, Coast Guard officials said.

Rescuers, who arrived about an hour after receiving reports of the explosion, took the crew to Terrebone General Medical Center in Houma, La. Hospital officials did not respond to requests for comment on the condition of the workers.

It was unclear what had touched off the blast on the structure, known as Vermilion Block 380, but the Mariner spokesman told CNBC that crews had been painting and sandblasting at the time.

In a statement, Mariner said that during the last week of August, the platform had produced about 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas a day and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate.

The company said it would begin an investigation into the accident and cooperate with federal officials.

The platform has been the site of at least four accidents — two of them fires — since 2000, according to federal records.

In June 2007, a welder using a torch to cut a pipe was injured when oily sand in the pipe flared up, reddening his face, neck and ears. In December 2002, before Mariner owned the rig, a mechanic suffered burns when exhaust from a pump fueled by natural gas caught fire.

In May 2008, a crew member was seriously hurt when a chain came loose and struck him in the face. And a pipeline leak was reported in 2000, when the platform was operated by a different company.

The platform was not affected by the Obama administration’s recent moratorium on deepwater oil drilling, imposed on projects more than 500 feet deep in the wake of the BP spill"

So far an oil slick about one mile long, and one hundred feet wide has been seen.