NEW ORLEANS- Authorities say a worker was killed in what appears to be an equipment-related accident on a drillship in the Gulf of Mexico.

The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said in a news release Wednesday that the incident happened Sunday aboard the Petrobras 10,000 drillship, owned by Transocean Ltd.

The safety bureau said the deceased worker was employed by Spencer Ogden Ltd. as a floorhand and was engaged in pipe-handling operations when he was injured. The statement said the man was positioned between a stanchion on the rig floor, with his back to the retracting skate, when the skate moved and its loading platform pinned him against the stanchion.

No one else was harmed.

The cause of the incident is under investigation. The drillship is located about 170 miles south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana.