Nine offshore workers are missing and one has died following an accident offshore Azerbaijan, just over a year after dozens were lost in a previous tragedy.
High winds of 41m/s caused a 150m high part of the pier on the right and left sides of the oil gathering station of the No. 3 oil and gas production department of Socar’s AzNeft Production Union to collapse in the early morning hours of 15 December.
A statement from the country's president, Ilham Aliyev, said that the ground as well as the lodge attached to the pier also collapsed.
Later in the day, the body of the body of Ilham Gafarov, an operator at the installation, from Baku, was found. The nine missing are: Zülfüqarov Güloglan, Zülfüqarov Azay, Qurbanov Vidadi, Həsənov Elçin, Hacıəliyev Həsənağa, Əsədov Samir, Bəhrəmov Cavid, Abbasov Ramiz, and Rüstəmov Qorxmaz.
The office of the president said that the search and rescue operation involves a helicopter and ships of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Socar employees, and ships of the Caspian Shipping Co.
Balamirza Agarakhimov, a deputy head of Socar subsidiary Azneft, told Reuters on Thursday that the ramp, which collapsed into the sea, had been built in 1978 and had last undergone repairs in August this year. Socar, according to Reuters, said that five of the staff had been working on the installation and another five were in a cabin which was dislodged by the high winds.
It has been just a year since Socar was struck by disaster in the Caspian Sea. On 4 December 2015, dozens of people went missing after damage to a high pressure subsea pipe at the platform No.10 in the Gunashli oil field, also during bad weather, described as a hurricane, resulting in a fire and the partial collapse of the platform.
At the time, 63 workers were on the platform, 10 were confirmed killed, 20 missing and 33 rescued. Some were on one of the lifeboats from the facility which capsized after hitting piles.
Socar has been criticized by the Oil-Workers’ Rights Protection Organization Public Union (OWRPO PU) for its failings. OWRPO was established in 1996 by a group of specialist working in oil sector in order to protect human rights working in oil and gas sector of Azerbaijan. It claims Socar broke various codes relating to the safety of its workers and put the Gunshli death toll at 12, with 19 people missing and 32 injured.
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