The Interior Department agency that oversees offshore rig safety said Friday it has launched a full investigation into the fire Thursday aboard the Mariner Energy Inc. offshore production platform.

Mariner by late Thursday had extinguished the fire on the platform, which is about 100 miles south of Vermilion Bay, LA. The platform serves seven natural gas and oil wells that were producing 9.2 MMcf/d of gas and 1,400 b/d of oil and condensate at the end of August. The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) had responded to reports of smoke and a fire, and 13 crew members were safely rescued by commercial vessels.

According to Mariner, the fire, which it stressed was not a well blowout, occurred on the upper decks of the production platform.

“We are all relieved that the 13 personnel on the platform were rescued safely,” said Michael R. Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM), successor to the Minerals Management Service.

“We are continuing to closely monitor this situation, which will be investigated fully. 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.”

Bromwich has directed members of BOEM’s newly created Investigations and Review Unit to lead the investigation. The USCG will support the BOEM’s investigation.

The production platform was in 340 feet of water (shallow waters), and was authorized to produce oil and natural gas at this water depth, Bromwich noted. The current six-month drilling suspension in the Gulf of Mexico is for deepwater drilling and does not apply to shallow water operations, including the Mariner platform, he said.

Mariner, which is being acquired by Apache Corp., said it was working with regulatory authorities and planned an internal investigation as well, but the cause of the blaze was unknown on Friday. The fire apparently started in crews’ quarters, it said.

The production platform, in Vermillion Block 380, was working on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Mariner is among the largest leaseholders on the OCS, and at the end of 2009 the producer had stakes in about 240 federal leases and more than 30 state blocks. Mariner was drilling no offshore wells at the end of June, according to the Houston-based producer.

According to USCG Petty Officer Casey Ranel, smoke on the platform was reported by a commercial helicopter at about 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday. Seven helicopters, four boats and two airplanes responded, Ranel said. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs had said Thursday oil spill response assets were ready if needed.

Democratic leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee wasted no time in asking Mariner to report to them on the details of the fire. In a letter sent Thursday to Mariner CEO Scott D. Josey, the producer was asked to provide a full briefing of the incident and its possible causes by Friday (Sept. 10). The letter was signed by House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman; Rep. Stupak (D-MI), chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee; and Rep. Edward Markey, chairman of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee.

The House lawmakers were unrelenting in their pursuit of BP plc after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig last spring. “I’m not at all surprised” by how quickly Waxman has reacted to the Mariner incident, chuckled an official with a producer association.

“This [latest] explosion highlights the significant risks associated with offshore drilling and that much is left to be done to keep America’s workers and waters safe from those risks,” Markey said. “After the 13 workers on this rig are safe and sound, we have a duty to them and all oil workers to make sure the oil industry’s drilling practices are also safe and sound.”

Key oil and natural gas groups declined to comment on whether they thought the Mariner incident might cause the federal government to extend the current moratorium in the Gulf, which is expected to expire on Nov. 30. But they were quick to point out that a platform fire is quite different from a rig explosion, and is typically more benign. Platforms typically are put in place once a well is drilled and many times are tethered to the bottom.

“Neither one is good, but platform fires do happen occasionally,” said Cathy Landry, a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute.

“I don’t think we know enough about the situation yet” to assess what potential impact it may have on the moratorium, said Lee Fuller, vice president of government affairs for the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Meanwhile, the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s ThinkProgress noted late Thursday that in a recent filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mariner said its operations “may be impacted in the future by increased regulatory oversight, which may increase the cost of” and delay drilling and production from OCS wells.

ThinkProgress said the BOEM’s OCS Civil/Criminal Penalties Program “cited Mariner Energy for two violations in just the first six months of this year, and once more in 2007.” The two violations this year, it said, totaled $55,000, while the one in 2007 totaled $30,000.

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