Contradictory reports have been issued in the wake of of an oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico Thursday, some 80 miles south of Louisiana's Vermillion Bay.
Early reports of a mile-long sheen on the water have been contradicted by numerous fly-overs that have failed to find any oil.
The rig, designated Vermillion Oil Platform 380, is owned by Mariner Energy, and is staffed by 13 oil workers.
All 13 workers survived the incident, but one is injured, and rescue crews are working to transport the worker to a medical facility.
The rig, situated in 340 feet of water, is an oil-production platform, not a drilling rig. That means it is not susceptible to a natural gas "blowout," such as the one that destroyed BP's Deepwater Horizon platform earlier this year, dumping an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean.
There is no word on what caused the explosion at Vermillion Oil Platform 380, or the integrity of the remaining structure.
"We obviously have response assets ready for deployment, should we receive reports of pollution in the water," said White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs during a daily briefing Thursday.
