Fatal Gulf of Mexico oil platform fire

A fire at a Pemex platform in the Gulf of Mexico killed four workers and injured 16 others, the Mexican state-owned oil company said on Wednesday.

The fire broke out at dawn in a water separation and pumping unit at the Abkatun A platform in the Bay of Campeche, in the shallow waters at the southern end of the gulf.

The accident is likely to renew questions over Pemex's safety record. Two years ago, a gas leak at its headquarters in Mexico City caused a blast that killed at least 37 people.

Mexico is trying to court foreign investors to develop its oilfields as part of an overhaul of its energy sector, and Pemex is seeking partners to work with it on some of its fields.

The Bay of Campeche is an important source of oil production for Mexico, and includes Cantarell, the largest field yet discovered in the country.

The Abkatun A platform is one of the facilities extracting oil from the Abkatun-Pol-Chuc group of fields, which in 2013 was responsible for about 12 per cent of Mexico's production.

Like Mexico's total oil output, the group of fields has been in decline, producing more than 700,000 barrels per day at its peak in 1996 but just 294,000 b/d in 2013.

One of the dead is a Pemex employee, one worked for Cotemar, the oil services group, and two more had yet to be identified, Pemex said.

Two of the injured workers were in a serious condition, it added.

The platform was evacuated by 302 workers.

Eight firefighting boats were deployed to fight the blaze, with the help of the Mexican navy, but on Wednesday afternoon efforts to put it out were still under way.

Emilio Lozoya, Pemex chief executive, went to the local emergency care centre in Paraiso, Tabasco, and then flew past the burning platform to see the firefighting effort, the company said.

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