Times-Picayune /Landov Crew boats pump water Thursday onto the oil-and-gas production platform Vermilion 380-A, after an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast, 93 nautical miles south of Vermilion Bay. 
 
 HOUMA, La.—The fire that engulfed an oil and gas platform Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico heightened pressure on the energy industry, which is battling greater regulation and a deep-water drilling ban. 
 
 The accident on Mariner Energy Inc.'s shallow-water platform sent 13 workers tumbling into the ocean, but there were no casualties and little or no oil appears to have been spilled. 
 
 But the towering column of smoke in the Gulf, 245 miles from where the Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, provoked an outcry from environmental groups and politicians in Washington already skeptical of offshore drilling. 
 
 And it complicated the energy industry's effort to portray BP PLC's massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill as a fluke that shouldn't have provoked a drilling moratorium, some energy experts said. 
 
 Kevin Book, managing director of research at ClearView Energy Partners LLC, a consulting firm with many energy clients, said that another accident in the Gulf, albeit minor compared with the April blowout, could prompt the Democratic Congress to push for greater changes. 
 
 Certain lawmakers' perceptions "that oil and gas production is safe is not affirmed by this disaster," he said. "And worse, the idea that regulation is adequate is definitely not affirmed." 
 
 The platform in Thursday's incident wasn't covered by the moratorium, because it didn't involve drilling and wasn't in deep water. 
 
 But the accident comes as the oil industry is trying to persuade the Obama administration to relax its drilling moratorium, on the grounds that offshore companies have taken sufficient steps to prevent another accident like the one aboard the Deepwater Horizon. That accident killed 11 workers and unleashed the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. 
 
 The administration has said it could lift or scale back the moratorium prior to its scheduled expiration on Nov. 30 if it determines that certain categories of rigs "present fewer risks than others." 
 
 The industry remains hopeful that will happen. "It's dispiriting, but it shouldn't be an impediment to progress," Lee Hunt, president of the International Association of Drilling Contractors, said of Thursday's accident. Mr. Hunt noted that the Mariner facility was a production platform, not a drilling rig, and was pumping mostly natural gas. 
 
 "What you have is an industrial-style accident that could have happened onshore," he added. 
 
 Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican who has been leading the fight against the drilling ban, said the incident shouldn't be used as political ammunition in support of a federal moratorium on offshore drilling. Speaking at the hospital here where the platform's crew were being examined, he said, "Energy exploration can and should be done safely." 
 
 Mr. Jindal said he welcomed increased federal safety oversight of drilling, but not a ban on drilling. "It's important for the federal government to do their job, so thousands of Louisianans don't lose their jobs." 
 
 The American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group that has mounted an aggressive push to overturn the drilling moratorium, said it was too soon to comment on the impact of the accident. "We don't know at this point what impact this will have," said spokesman Bill Bush. 
 
 But critics of offshore drilling said the fire showed the danger of offshore drilling, in both deep and shallow water. 
 
 "The half-measures and happy talk need to end," said Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat. The latest accident, he said, "is the starkest possible reminder that oil rigs in this country are not safe, have not been safe for years and are not currently being inspected for safety." 
 
 Senior Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has been investigating the Deepwater Horizon disaster, fired off a letter to Mariner requesting a briefing on the incident by Sept. 10. 
 
 View Slideshow AFP/Getty Images Thirteen workers waited for rescue after they jumped into the sea. 
 
 The cause of the fire, which began a little after 9 a.m. CDT, and was extinguished by midafternoon, remained under investigation Thursday. One worker on the platform, who wasn't on board when the fire broke out, said a paint crew had joined the usual four-man crew on Wednesday. 
 
 None of the 13 workers aboard was seriously injured, Gov. Jindal said, though only 12 were able to grab life vests; they held their colleague afloat in the Gulf until rescuers arrived. 
 
 Edwin Stanton, commander of the Coast Guard's operations in New Orleans, said six commercial offshore supply boats were on the scene, continuing to spray cooling water onto the platform. He said the sheen of oil seen around the rig probably amounted to about 10 gallons. 
 
 An oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico explodes sending 13 people on board into the water below. Video courtesy of Fox News. 
 
 Fires aren't uncommon offshore, especially at older platforms like Mariner's, said Ray Kizer, an analyst at energy consultancy IHS. Mariner took over the platform, known as Vermilion 380-A, several years ago, but it has been operating for three decades. 
 
 The platform has a history of maintenance and repair issues, according to federal records. Government inspectors found an unusually high number of serious problems aboard the platform in both 2004 and 2005, and the facility was later damaged by Hurricane Ike. 
 
 Mariner is the sole owner of the platform, which it said recently produced an average of 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas a day, equivalent to 1,533 barrels of oil, and about 1,400 barrels a day of oil and other liquids. 
 
 Apache Corp. said in April it would buy Mariner for $2.7 billion, acquiring a foothold in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, which in recent years has become a major growth area for big oil companies. 
 
 The Deepwater Horizon incident, which is costing U.K. oil giant BP billions of dollars, also has cast doubt on whether smaller oil companies would be able to handle the high costs of responding to offshore accidents. 
 
 Bruce Bullock, director of Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University, noted that a majority of the public didn't appear to support the moratorium. "But that didn't stop the administration from imposing it," he said, "so I don't think this is going to do anything to help convince the administration to lift it." 
 
 —Russell Gold and Jennifer S. Forsyth contributed to this article. 
 
 Write to Leslie Eaton at leslie.eaton@wsj.com, Russell Gold at russell.gold@wsj.com and Stephen Power at stephen.power@wsj.com ||||| An oil platform exploded and caught fire Thursday off the Louisiana coast, the second such disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in less than five months. All 13 crew members were rescued from the water in protective "Gumby suits." 
 
 Boats are seen spraying water on an oil and gas platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, of the coast of Louisiana., Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010. All 13 crew members were rescued. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Associated Press) 
 
 Boats are seen spraying water on an oil and gas platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana., Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010. All 13 crew members were rescued. (AP Photo/Gerald... (Associated Press) 
 
 Boats are seen spraying water on an oil and gas platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana., Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010. All 13 crew members were rescued. (AP Photo/Gerald... (Associated Press) 
 
 Boats are seen spraying water on an oil and gas platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, of the coast of Louisiana., Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010. All 13 crew members were rescued. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Associated Press) 
 
 The Coast Guard initially reported that an oil sheen a mile long and 100 feet wide had begun to spread from the site of the blast, about 200 miles west of the site of BP's massive spill. But hours later, Coast Guard Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau said crews were unable to find any spill. 
 
 The company that owns the platform, Houston-based Mariner Energy, did not know what caused the blast. 
 
 Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Mariner officials told him there were seven active production wells on the platform, and they were shut down shortly after the fire broke out. 
 
 The Coast Guard said Mariner Energy reported the oil sheen. But the company said in a public statement that an initial flyover of the platform did not reveal any spilled oil. 
 
 Photos from the scene showed at least five ships floating near the platform. Three of them were shooting great plumes of water onto the machinery. Light smoke could be seen drifting across the deep blue waters of the gulf. 
 
 By late afternoon, the fire on the platform was out. 
 
 The platform is in about 340 feet of water and about 100 miles south of Louisiana's Vermilion Bay. Its location is considered shallow water, much less than the approximately 5,000 feet where BP's well spewed oil and gas for three months after the April rig explosion. 
 
 Responding to any oil spill in shallow water would be much easier than in deep water, where crews depend on remote-operated vehicles access equipment on the sea floor. 
 
 A homeland security update obtained by The Associated Press said the platform was producing 58,800 gallons of oil and 900,000 cubic feet of gas per day. The platform can store 4,200 gallons of oil. 
 
 White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the administration has "response assets ready for deployment should we receive reports of pollution in the water." 
 
 Crew members were found floating in the water, huddled together in insulated survival outfits called "Gumby suits" for their resemblance to the cartoon character. 
 
 "These guys had the presence of mind, used their training to get into those Gumby suits before they entered the water," Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer John Edwards said. 
 
 The crew was being flown to a hospital in Houma. The Coast Guard said one person was injured, but the company said there were no injuries. 
 
 A company report said the well was drilled in the third quarter of 2008. 
 
 There are about 3,400 platforms operating in the Gulf, according to the American Petroleum Institute. Together they pump about a third of the America's domestic oil, forming the backbone of the country's petroleum industry. 
 
 Platforms are vastly different from oil rigs like the Deepwater Horizon. They are usually brought in after wells are already drilled and sealed. 
 
 "A production platform is much more stable," said Andy Radford, an API expert on offshore oil drilling. "On a drilling rig, you're actually drilling the well. You're cutting. You're pumping mud down the hole. You have a lot more activity on a drilling rig." 
 
 In contrast, platforms are usually placed atop stable wells where the oil is flowing at a predictable pressure, he said. A majority of platforms in the Gulf do not require crews on board. 
 
 Many platforms, especially those in shallower water, stand on legs that are drilled into the sea floor. Like a giant octopus, they spread numerous pipelines across the sea floor and can tap into many wells at once. 
 
 Platforms do not have blowout preventers, but they are usually equipped with a series of redundant valves that can shut off oil and gas at different points along the pipeline. 
 
 Numerous platforms were damaged during hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The storms broke pipelines and oil spilled into the Gulf. But the platforms successfully kept major spills from happening, Radford said. 
 
 "Those safety valves did their job," he said. 
 
 Federal authorities have cited Mariner Energy and related entities for 10 accidents in the Gulf of Mexico over the last four years, according to safety records from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. 
 
 The accidents range from platform fires to pollution spills and a blowout, according to accident-investigation reports from the agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service. 
 
 In 2007, welding sparks falling onto an oil storage tank caused a flash fire that slightly burned a contract worker. The Minerals Management Service issued a $35,000 fine. 
 
 Mariner Energy Inc. focuses on oil and gas exploration and production in the Gulf. In April, Apache Corp., another independent oil company, announced plans to buy Mariner in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $3.9 billion, including the assumption of about $1.2 billion of Mariner's debt. That deal is pending. 
 
 On Friday, BP was expected to begin the process of removing the cap and failed blowout preventer, another step toward completion of a relief well that would put a final seal on the well. The Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, killing 11 people and setting off a three-month leak that totaled 206 million gallons of oil. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans, Chris Kahn in New York, Eileen Sullivan, Matthew Daly and Gerry Bodlander in Washington, Garance Burke in Fresno, Calif., and researcher Monika Mathur in New York contributed to this report.
– The latest fire on an oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday may not have spilled more oil into the Gulf, but it has further polluted the industry's image. The accident is going to make it harder for the industry to argue that the Deepwater Horizon disaster was a fluke as it fights tighter regulation and a moratorium on deep-water drilling, energy experts tell the Wall Street Journal. The platform engulfed by fire yesterday was in shallow water and it wasn't drilling when the accident occurred, but analysts say the fire adds to perceptions among some lawmakers that the industry is unsafe and under-regulated. The platform has a history of maintenance and repair issues and its owner, Mariner Energy, has been involved in at least a dozen offshore accidents since 2006, including four fires and a minor blowout, the Houston Chronicle reports.