Five workers were killed and six injured in Sunday’s fire on an offshore platform in the southern Gulf of Mexico operated by Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) that cut about a quarter of Mexico’s oil production.
The fire broke out as crews were performing maintenance on the platform, and a search for missing workers continues, Pemex Chief Executive Octavio Romero announced.
The platform remains out of operation, with about 421,000 barrels per day of oil lost and 125 wells offline, he said.
Following the incident, the company plans to resume power supply to the facility and connected wells as soon as possible, aiming to restore gas and oil output afterward. The impact of the accident on Pemex’s monthly production and exports had not yet been estimated, Romero said.
The heavily indebted Pemex has long had a checkered record on security, and dozens of people have been killed in major accidents in the past. Still, the platform fire was one of the worst Pemex has suffered under the current government.
The company’s chief executive, Octavio Romero, denied that a lack of investment was to blame for the incidents.
“There is not a problem of lack of investment, there is not a problem of lack of resources,” Romero said. “The oil industry is a risky industry. We have had accidents, which in numbers are less than in previous years.”
For the records, the incident comes six weeks after a gas leak in an underwater Pemex pipeline triggered a fire on the ocean’s surface in the Gulf of Mexico.
