Four people are dead and several injured following a fire on Petróleos Mexicanos' (PEMEX) Abkatún Permanente platform in the Bay of Campeche, offshore Mexico.
PEMEX confirmed the four casualties on its Twitter account around 12:30 p.m. CST. PEMEX CEO Emilio Lozoya is overseeing the incident at the emergency center the company set up in Paraíso, Tabasco, located north of the state capital of Villahermosa.
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Image from PEMEX Flickr. |
Local news outlets are reporting that the evacuation efforts began in the early morning hours of 1 April.
A statment sent out earlier today on the Mexican national oil company's website, PEMEX confirmed the death of one Cotemar worker. As of 11:00 a.m. CST, PEMEX says 16 workers have been injured, with two of them in serious condition. They are being treated at the Hospital General de PEMEX, in the Ciudad de Carmen, and at the Mexican Social Security Institute. Reuters is reporting up to 45 workers injured.
A total of 300 workers were evacuated from the Abkatun after the fire broke out, to other platforms in the area.
PEMEX reported the fire on the company's Twitter account earlier today (1 April) with a tweet that said nearly 300 workers have been evacuated from the platform, with eight fire fighting boats to help with the emergency.
Abkatún is part of PEMEX's Abkatún-Pol-Chuc complex, and sits 132km northeast from the Port of Dos Bocas between the states of Campeche and Tabasco. Production at the light oil fields began in 1980. The US Energy Information Administration stated that production from Abkatún-Pol-Chuc has declined from peak levels achieved in the mid-1990s, when output exceeded 700,000 b/d; production in 2013 was under 300,000 b/d.
Director General of PEMEX Exploration and Production, Gustavo Hernández García, told Mexico Oil & Gas Review that the complex remains extremely important to PEMEX. "Because of the viscosity of the oil produced there, the oil extracted from its reservoirs is extremely light, between 37°API and 40°API. Its production combined with the oil extracted from Litoral de Tabasco, amounts to almost 500,000 b/d."
In response to the explosion and ongoing fire on the PEMEX oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, Charlie Kronick, Oil analyst for Greenpeace UK, said in a statement, "Greenpeace offers its condolences to the friends and family of those killed and injured as result of the explosion on the PEMEX oil rig Abkatun Alphan in Campeche Sound. This tragic accident, which comes just days before the fifth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, once again demonstrates the true cost of our addiction to oil, whether in the Gulf of Mexico, Nigeria or the Arctic. The sooner we end our dependence on dirty and dangerous fuels like oil and shift to clean energy, the better.”
Last month, the UK government signed a memorandum of understanding with Mexico to provide US$1 billion in export guantrantees to PEMEX.
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