Worker killed, 3 others injured in Gulf of Mexico oil platform blast

NEW ORLEANS -- One person was killed and three others hurt in an explosion Thursday on an offshore oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

A spokeswoman for Houston-based Fieldwood Energy said the explosion happened just before 3 p.m. at the West Delta 105 "E" facility, located about 12 miles off Louisiana's coast.

"One employee of a contractor was fatally injured and a second contractor employee was seriously injured," Shannon Savoy said in a statement. "We have accounted for all other personnel who were working at the facility."

The conditions of the other two people who were hurt was not immediately known.

Savoy called the explosion an "isolated incident that has been fully contained. The facility was not damaged and there was no pollution that resulted from the incident."

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said in a statement that the platform was not in production at the time of the explosion.

Bureau spokeswoman Chauntra Rideaux said the agency was working with the U.S. Coast Guard on the response and would be investigating.

The explosion occurred about two months after a contractor was killed and two others hurt during maintenance work in September on a Chevron natural gas pipeline, also off the Louisiana coast. The cause of that incident remains under investigation.