(Adds background.)
The U.S. government announced Friday it has started an
investigation into Thursday's explosion at Mariner Energy Inc.'s
(ME) offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
The incident took place in a shallow-water platform and sent 13
workers overboard. They were all rescued and no oil appears to have
been spilled.
It occurred 4 1/2 months after the Deepwater Horizon rig, owned
by Transocean Ltd. (RIG) exploded and sank in water a mile deep,
unleashing the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
The investigation will be led by the newly formed Bureau of
Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
"We will use all available resources to ensure that we find out
what happened, how it happened, and what enforcement action should
be taken if any laws or regulations were violated," said Michael R.
Bromwich, the agency's regulation and enforcement director of the
bureau. The U.S. Coast Guard will support the investigation.
Mariner's shares were up 1.7% at $23.13 in early trading after
falling 2.6% Thursday. The company is in the midst of being
acquired by Apache Corp. (APA) for $2.7 billion.
-By Jodi Xu, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-3037;
jodi.xu@dowjones.com
(Tennille Tracy contributed to this article.)