An Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD) natural gas compression plant caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday night, the company said. The fire has been extinguished.

Workers at the plant, at High Island 264 B about 90 miles southeast of Galveston, reported that a small fire caused an explosion at about 10:15 p.m. CDT Tuesday. All 40 crew members were safely evacuated, and the plant's emergency shut off switch was engaged when the plant was evacuated, the Coast Guard and Enterprise said.

The plant is part of the High Island Offshore System, or HIOS, a 291-mile pipeline system that can transport up to 1.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day. The system transports gas from producing fields in the Galveston, Garden Banks, West Cameron, High Island and East Breaks areas of the Gulf of Mexico to various interstate pipelines, including TransCanada Corp.'s (TRP) ANR pipeline system and El Paso Corp.'s (EP) Tennessee Gas pipeline.

Enterprise is mobilizing emergency crews to examine the extent of the damage, spokesman Rick Rainey said.

A section of the HIOS system was damaged during Hurricane Ike and resumed full service in December.

-By Christine Buurma and Brian Baskin, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2453; brian.baskin@dowjones.com