Workers evacuated from burning oil rig in U.S. Gulf

HOUSTON (Reuters) - An oil and gas platform owned by Mariner Energy Inc was on fire off the coast of Louisiana on Thursday, but no oil was visible in the water and the 13 workers aboard the facility were rescued.

The site of the fire was located west of BP Plc's ruptured Macondo well that killed 11 people and caused the world's worst offshore oil spill.

All 13 workers at the platform -- located more than 90 miles (145 km) south of Louisiana's Vermilion Bay -- were plucked from the water by a supply boat and taken to another platform where they were waiting to be picked up by the Coast Guard, the agency said.

One worker was injured and the government said it was ready to respond if there were reports of pollution, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, told reporters.

The platform was not producing at the time of the fire, Patrick Cassidy, a spokesman for Mariner Energy told CNBC television.

"They were doing some work at the time, but I'm not sure what. It was not drilling," said Henry Cambre, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard 8th District Command Centre in New Orleans. "We have had no reports of oil on the water."

Rescue ships were on the way while helicopters were on scene.

News of the fire sent crude oil futures up 36 cents, or 0.5 percent, in early afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

U.S. crude oil prices jumped following news of the fire and the threat of Hurricane Earl on East Coast oil infrastructure, trading up 62 cents at $74.53 a barrel at 12:45 p.m. EDT (5:45 p.m. British time).

Shares of Mariner Energy fell 2 percent to $22.93 and shares of Apache Corp, which is expected to buy Mariner Energy, fell 1.3 percent to $91.18.

(Additional reporting by Kristen Hays and Eileen O'Grady in Houston; editing by Jim Marshall and Lisa Shumaker)

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