The U.S. government announced Friday it has started an investigation into Thursday's fire 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. The inquiry will be conducted by a newly created investigative unit within the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement - a government agency that has itself undergone a tremendous amount of reform.

In the weeks following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar formed the BOEMRE division out of the formerly named Minerals Management Service, a heavily-criticized unit that oversaw offshore drilling and production.

The investigation into the Mariner Energy platform will be among the high-profile tasks being performed by BOEMRE.

"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 bureau Director Michael R. Bromwich.

The investigative unit started to conduct interviews last night to try to determine the circumstances surrounding the fire, said Interior Dept. spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz.

The U.S. Coast Guard will support the investigation.

The government's inquiry will coincide with Mariner Energy's own internal review. In fact, Mariner is trying to get its own people onto the platform Friday - located about 100 miles south of Louisiana's Vermilion Bay - to determine the causes of the fire and the extent of the damage.

"The process has already started," said Mariner Energy spokesman Tom Sommers.

Mariner Energy's platform fire occurred roughly four-and-a-half months after the Deepwater Horizon caught fire, unleashing the worst offshore spill in U.S. history.

But there are few similarities between the two events. For starters, Mariner's Vermilion structure is a production platform that collects oil and gas from seven remote wells, while Deepwater Horizon was a drilling rig.

Nevertheless, the Mariner Energy event is almost certain to play a role in future debates over the government's oversight of offshore operations and the Obama administration's controversial ban on deepwater drilling.

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 Tennille Tracy, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6619; tennille.tracy@dowjones.com
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