BSEE via EPA
A handout photo released by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) shows gas spewing from the Hercules 265 gas rig on Tuesday.
By Christopher Nelson and Henry Austin, NBC News
A fire erupted on drilling rig off the Louisiana coast that was surrounded by a ?major cloud of gas? after it experienced a blowout, officials said late Tuesday.
The blaze began about 10:50 p.m. local time (11:50 p.m. ET) on the Hercules 265 natural gas platform, which is located around 55 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico.
Eileen Angelico, a?spokeswoman for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said no one was on board when the fire started. The cause of the blaze was unknown early Wednesday.
She added that personnel from Wild Well Inc had been brought in to try and get the well under control, but when they?d approached the blaze Tuesday night they?d determined it was unsafe to get any closer when they were 200ft away from it.?
The BSSE also said that a specialist boat, with both water and foam firefighting abilities, had been dispatched to tackle the blaze.
Earlier on Tuesday, 44 workers were evacuated on two lifeboats after the gas began spewing to the surface. None of them were injured, NBC station?WDSU reported.
A Coast Guard cutter and two aircraft were sent to assess the situation and BSEE inspectors reported that a cloud of natural gas had formed over the well.
?A light sheen could be seen on the water one-half mile by 50 feet,? the BSEE said in a statement?on Tuesday, adding that the sheen appeared to be quickly dissipating. ?
The portable drilling rig known as a jackup rig, was operated by Hercules Offshore. In a news release, Hercules Offshore said that they were working for Houston-based Walter Oil & Gas Corp.
Walter Oil & Gas reported to the BSEE that the rig was completing a "sidetrack well" ? a means of re-entering the original well bore, Angelico said.
Sidetrack wells are sometimes drilled to remedy a problem with the existing well bore.
"It's a way to overcome an engineering problem with the original well," Ken Medlock, an energy expert at Rice University's Baker Institute told the Associated Press. "They're not drilled all the time, but it's not new."
In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers and eventually spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.?
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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This story was originally published on Wed Jul 24, 2013 5:08 AM EDT
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