MIAMI - Another offshore rig exploded Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico, an unsettling echo of BP's deep-sea blowout less than six months ago, but this time it appears there won't be another environmental catastrophe.
The platform produced mostly natural gas and a small amount of oil - 1,400 barrels a day, according to the rig's owner, Houston-based Mariner Energy. A mile-long ribbon of light sheen was seen near the rig about 100 miles south of Louisiana, but both the Coast Guard and Mariner said there was no indication of a continuing leak.
Coast Guard Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau said the blast, which forced 13 workers to leap into the water where they were rescued, wasn't comparable to the Deepwater Horizon accident, which exploded in April, killing 11 workers and spewing some 60,000 barrels a day.
"It's a much smaller platform in much shallower water," she said.
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Still, critics immediately seized on the accident to bolster arguments that offshore energy operations are too risky to continue - at least without stringent new safeguards - or expand into new areas, such as off Florida.
Sarah Bucci, field associate for Environment Florida, released a statement that was echoed by the National Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation and Greenpeace: "President Obama should need no further wake-up call to permanently ban new drilling."
The house Energy and Commerce Committee also sent Mariner Chief Executive Officer Scott Josey a letter asking for a briefing on the blast, which left the rig billowing smoke for much of the day.
The Houston Chronicle reported that records from the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement - formerly known as the Minerals Management Service - show Mariner has had at least 13 Gulf accidents since 2006, including several rig fires.
The company issued a brief statement saying all 13 workers had been rescued without injury, no slick was evident during an initial overflight and that it would cooperate in investigating the cause. A company spokesman told CNBC that crews were sandblasting at the time of the explosion.
Jim Noe, executive director of the Shallow Water Energy Security Coalition, an industry group, said critics were leaping to conclusions. The platform wasn't a drilling rig, he said.
