<span identity=”midArticle_start”/>MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican state-run oil firm Pemex stated at least four people died after a fire broke out on a production platform in the Gulf of Mexico early on Wednesday, sparking the evacuation of around 300 workers.
<span id=”midArticle_0″/>Local emergency services said as many as 45 people were injured in the blaze, which erupted overnight on the Abkatun Permanente platform in the oil-rich Bay of Campeche.
<span id=”midArticle_1″/>Pemex said it was battling the flames with eight firefighting boats and that a contractor for Mexican oil services company Cotemar was one of the dead.
<span id=”midArticle_2″/>Videos posted on Twitter showed the platform engulfed in flames, lighting up the night sky, as rescue workers looked on from nearby ships.
<span id=”midArticle_3″/>The fire broke out in the dehydration and pumping area of the platform, Pemex said, though it was not clear what caused it. A Pemex spokesman could not immediately say whether local oil production had been affected.
<span id=”midArticle_4″/>A spokesman for emergency services in the nearby city of Ciudad del Carmen said earlier that authorities had registered 45 people with injuries from the fire. Other officials put the total at around 16 injured.
<span id=”midArticle_5″/>The platform forms part of the Abkatun-Pol-Chuc offshore complex. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, production at the complex has fallen steadily since the 1990s to below 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2013.
<span id=”midArticle_6″/>Mexico currently produces just under 2.3 million bpd, and is the world’s No. 10 crude producer.
<span id=”midArticle_7″/>Pemex has suffered a number of accidents in recent years, with at least 37 individuals killed by means of a blast on the firm’s Mexico Metropolis headquarters in 2013. Some other 26 folks have been killed at a hearth in a Pemex pure gasoline facility in September 2012.
<span identification=”midArticle_8″/>Cotemar is primarily based in Ciudad del Carmen and offers offshore products and services to Pemex together with platform refurbishment, upkeep, and maritime transport, consistent with its website online.
<span identification=”midArticle_9″/><span identification=”midArticle_10″/> (Reporting with the aid of Ana Isabel Martinez and Gabriel Stargardter; Modifying via Kieran Murray and Peter Galloway)
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