Oil rig fire in Gulf of Mexico kills 2 people

Two people were reported to have died on Friday when an offshore oil rig called Nohoch Alfa caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico. A statement from the government-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) indicates that one person is still unaccounted for.

According to Pemex, 321 out of the 328 workers who were inside the building located at the Bay of Campeche when the fire broke out have already been evacuated, while four boats have been sent to extinguish the fires on the oil rig.

At least six people had been hurt, according to an earlier report from the state-owned oil company.

Director Octavio Romero Oropeza asserted that the two fatalities and the missing person were caused by the company operating the facility, not Pemex, in the most recent video statement posted to Pemex's Twitter account.

According to Oropeza, Pemex is investigating the cause of the fire, and the area of the platform where it started has been completely destroyed.

He claimed that the company's current efforts are being directed towards finding the missing person and starting up again.

The flames can be seen from the nearby platforms, according to some staff members of other platforms on Friday, suggesting that the incident is of a sizeable proportion, CNN reported.

At a previous press conference, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, stated that Pemex firefighters and the Mexican Navy were battling the blaze.

According to Pemex, which has a long history of serious industrial accidents at its facilities, "it will continue to report on the control, extinction of the fire, and damage assessment throughout the day."

Previously, in the Gulf of Mexico, a fire that resembled a sizable "eye of fire" was put out in 2021 close to a Pemex offshore platform.