Federal drilling overseers to investigate fire on Gulf of Mexico oil platform

Feds launch investigation of Gulf platform fire

WASHINGTON — The agency that oversees offshore drilling will investigate the fire on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

Thursday’s fire came less than five months after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 people and spurred the worst offshore oil spill in the nation’s history.

This time no one was killed and the Coast Guard said no crude was leaking.

Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, says his agency will work with the Coast Guard to investigate the fire. The oil platform is owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy Inc.