ME Mariner Energy Inc.

An offshore platform owned by Mariner Energy Inc. (ME) caught fire about 100 miles south of Louisiana's Vermilion Bay on Thursday morning, with a light sheen of oil around the platform visible from the air, according to the Coast Guard.

Thirteen workers were stranded in the water but were rescued and transferred to another platform, the Coast Guard said in a press release. One of the 13 workers was injured, said Coast Guard Office Petty Officer Casey Ranel. However, Mariner said in a press release that no injuries had been reported, and no hydrocarbon spill was seen during an initial flyover.

The workers will be transported to the Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma, La., according to the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard said the explosion took place at about 9:19 a.m. CDT. The agency dispatched nine helicopters, one fixed-wing aircraft and four cutter boats to the scene. A pilot who reported the fire around 9:30 a.m. CDT said the platform was engulfed in flames, said Petty Officer Bill Colclough. At around 12:30 p.m. CDT, the Coast Guard said the fire was still burning but under control. The cause has yet to be determined.

"There were reports that the rig was completely engulfed," Colclough said.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Lehmann said that the visible oil sheen measured one nautical mile by 100 feet.

The Mariner Energy platform is located on the Vermilion Block 380. According to data posted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, the platform, installed in 1980, operates at a depth of 340 feet and is manned around the clock.

Mariner said in the press release that in the last week of August, the facility produced an average of 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas a day and 1,400 barrels a day of oil. Mariner is the sole owner of the platform.

The Vermilion explosion comes just over four months after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig unleashed the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, driving lawmakers to seek an overhaul of drilling regulations. The Deepwater Horizon incident, which is costing U.K. oil giant BP PLC (BP) billions of dollars, also cast doubt on whether smaller oil companies would be able to handle the expense of responding to offshore accidents.

After falling as much as 16% on the news, Mariner Energy shares were recently down 2% at $22.86. Houston-based Mariner said that the cause of the fire wasn't known but would be investigated.

Apache Corp. (APA), which said in April it would acquire the company for $2.7 billion, also saw its shares slip, 1.8% lower at $90.77 on Thursday afternoon. The company declined to comment.

Apache's bid for Mariner would give it its first foothold in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico, which in recent years has become a major growth area for big oil companies. Apache Chief Executive Steve Farris said in late May the company intends to close the deal in the third quarter.

-By Jason Womack, Tennille Tracy and Angel Gonzalez, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6619; tennille.tracy@dowjones.com; 713-547-9201;

(Isabel Ordonez and Brian Baskin contributed to this article.)

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