Major fire accident at Mexico's offshore oil platform; 5 killed, 6 injured, 2 missing

A deadly fire accident at an offshore platform operated by Mexican oil and gas giant Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) in the southern Gulf of Mexico killed five and injured six, and two are reportedly missing, the firm said in a press release on Monday. As blazes erupted at the platform at 4:30 pm late evening at the facility in the Bay of Campeche, work at more than 100 oil wells was immediately suspended. 

“The fire was brought under control in the E-Ku A2 Platform of the Ku-A Processing Center, belonging to the Ku-Maloob-Zaap Production Asset. The incident occurred at 3:10 pm,” PEMEX said. It added, that the valves to the platform were closed and the monitoring was carried out, waiting for the remainder to be consumed. Similarly, the Emergency Plan was activated.

Fire broke out during 'scheduled maintenance,' says firm 

PEMEX specified that the incident did not occur due to the lack of investment for the maintenance of its facilities, but it happened while the COTEMAR and BMCI companies were carrying out scheduled maintenance tasks. Of those deceased in the unfortunate incident, one worker was the PEMEX employee, and four others worked for the COTEMAR company. Two missing persons worked with the firm Bufete de Monitoreo de Conditions e Integridad (BMCI). The six injured were being treated in hospitals; at least one is reported to be in a critical condition. The fire broke out while the firm was carrying out the scheduled preventive maintenance tasks, cleaning the lines of the suction heads and gas discharge from the pneumatic pump compressors. 

“The exhaustive search for the missing personnel continues, stabilizing the integrity of the facilities, as well as the damage assessment,” the company stated. A probe was ordered to determine the cause of the origin of the fire. As the oil wells were put out of action, there has been a production loss of 425,000 barrels a day, PEMEX chief Octavio Romero told a news conference. The incident occurred as the firm has been trying to recover from what it termed the “worst crisis in its history last year” the COVID-19 pandemic wherein the firm’s oil production slumped from a whopping 3.4 million barrels a day to 1.7 million BPD. 

Image Credit: Twitter/@Pemex/ Representative Image