Apart from the casualties, the Mexican company is losing nearly 421,000 barrels per day of oil production due to the fire incident
PEMEX reports casualties from a fire accident at an offshore platforms in Gulf of Mexico. (Credit: C Morrison from Pixabay)
Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) has announced that a fire accident at an offshore platform operated by the company in the southern Gulf of Mexico has killed five people and injured six.
Two personnel were reported to be missing following the incident that took place on Sunday at the E-Ku A2 platform of the Ku-A processing centre. The platform is part of the Ku-Maloob-Zaap production asset located in the Campeche Sound, offshore Mexico.
The fire was doused on Sunday itself and operations at the platform and 125 wells have been suspended.
The company’s chief executive Octavio Romero said that nearly 421,000 barrels per day of oil production is being lost due to the incident.
The deceased personnel include a worker from PEMEX, while the other four are from Mexican oil services firm Cotemar.
PEMEX said that the two missing people are from Bufete de Monitoreo de Conditions e Integridad (BMCI). The Mexican state-owned petroleum company said that of the six injured people being treated in hospitals.
The company said that the fire incident took place at 3:10PM on Sunday and that the fire was controlled at 4:30PM.
The Mexican oil and gas firm stated: “At PEMEX we are focusing our efforts on caring for the affected workers and their families, as well as on the exhaustive search for the personnel reported as missing.
“Likewise, an inspection of the facilities is carried out to evaluate the damage and initiate a root cause analysis that allows determining the origin of this fact and applying the corresponding insurance.”
The company said that the fire accident was not because of a lack of investment in maintenance of the facilities as the administration had boosted the budget for the impacted item.
Romero was quoted by Reuters as saying: “There is not a problem of lack of investment, there is not a problem of lack of resources.
“The oil industry is a risky industry. We have had accidents, which in numbers are less than in previous years.”