of mexico. 102 miles south of vermilion bay, in the terre bonne bay region. 13 people on board the rig at the time of the explosion and fire, all accounted for, one with injuries. wall street journal reporter ben castleman is on the line with us. and ben, help us understand a little bit more about the company that owned this platform. what do you know about mariner energy? caller: well mariner energy is relatively small as far as offshore operators go. you get lots of these small companies that operate onshore relatively few of them offshore. interesting fact about mariner is it s in the process of being acquired by a somewhat larger company, apache corps. that deal has not been completed. and we ll see what impact this might have. what is this rig that we re talking about? i mean we ve got information that it is, it has the capability of being a drilling
rescue vessels we understand are on the way. the rig is owned by mariner energy company based in houston. i talked with a coast guard petty officer a short time ago. caller: we received a report at approximately 10:30 a.m. that an oil rig approximately 90 miles south of vermilion bay in the terre bonne bay region of louisiana, that an oil rig owned by mariner energy exploded. the 13 crew members aboard the platform, they abandoned the rig. 12 have been accounted for. they all have been accounted for. one is injured. the 12 are in emergent suits. four coast ard rescue helicopters from air station new orleans and four coast guard rescue helicopters from air station houston are en route. as well as the coast guard cutters, decisive manta skipjack and four civilian