NEW ORLEANS — Three people were injured — two badly burned — in an oil rig explosion Wednesday in Bayou Perot, La., WDSU in New Orleans reported.
The U.S. Coast Guard received a report at about 10:15 a.m. Central time, that three people were injured on the rig, which is roughly 20 miles south-southeast of New Orleans, Petty Officer Thomas Blue of the Coast Guard told the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper.
There was no immediate status report on the condition of the rig, said Kenneth L. Padgett, director of Jefferson Parish emergency management, WDSU reported.
The news came on the same day that the Obama administration said it will maintain a long-standing oil drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida.
The administration considered loosening it before the BP spill, a senior administration official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Posted: 12:29 pm EST December 1, 2010Updated: 12:32 pm EST December 1, 2010
Source: WTOV