Two staff died and one other remained lacking after a raging fireplace broke out early on Friday morning at an offshore platform run by Mexican state oil firm Pemex simply off the southern fringe of the Gulf of Mexico.
In posts on Twitter, Pemex stated it had accounted for all different staff and stated oil manufacturing had taken a serious hit from the blaze.
Video circulating on social media confirmed the huge platform and its tangle of pipelines engulfed in flames as close by boats sought to douse the hearth with hoses.
The platform operates within the firm’s Cantarell Field, as soon as one of many world’s most efficient.
Earlier within the day, Pemex stated six individuals had been injured within the fireplace, which it stated began on the Nohoch-A platform after which unfold to a compression platform.
It was not instantly clear on Friday night whether or not the casualties had been among the many six injured.
Credit: PemexLater on Friday, the corporate stated oil manufacturing had been “impacted in a substantial way” because of the fireplace. Pemex didn’t supply additional particulars on the influence on output.
“Our technicians are studying how to repair the pipelines, interconnections and other works to restore it,” the corporate stated in a separate put up on Twitter.
Chief Executive Officer Octavio Romero referred to the influence in a video the corporate posted.
“We’re going to keep looking for this person as our number one priority, as well as think about how we can reactivate activity in the area because Nohoch is very important,” he stated.
A Pemex assertion Friday morning indicated that 321 of 328 individuals engaged on the sprawling platform had been efficiently evacuated.
Over the previous decade, Cantarell has seen its crude output slide considerably. But it’s nonetheless liable for round 170,000 barrels per day, in keeping with firm knowledge.
The overwhelming majority of Mexican oil manufacturing comes from close by shallow water fields clustered across the Bay of Campeche within the southern Gulf, the place Pemex has suffered a lot of industrial accidents lately.
Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez; Additional reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher, Kylie Madry, Manuel Carrillo and Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Isabel Woodford, David Gregorio and Rosalba O’Brien
(Reuters – Reporting by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by David Alire Garcia)
