Explosion and fire on the oil platform in Gulf of Mexico - 45 hurt and 300 evacuated
(Reuters) - Mexican state-run oil company Pemex said on Wednesday it had evacuated around 300 workers after a fire broke out on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, with local emergency services reporting that at least 45 people were injured.
At least one person, a contractor, was killed by the fire, according to a spokesperson for state oil company Pemex.
Pemex said on Twitter that eight firefighting boats were tackling the blaze, which erupted overnight on the Abkatun Permanente platform in the oil-rich Bay of Campeche.
A spokesman for emergency services in the city of Ciudad del Carmen said authorities had registered 45 people injured so far due to the blaze.
The spokesman said no fatalities were reported, though local Mexican media said that at least one person had died.
The platform forms part of the Abkatun-Pol-Chuc offshore complex. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, production at the complex has fallen steadily since the 1990s to below 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2013.
Mexico currently produces just under 2.3 million bpd.
It was not immediately clear what had caused the fire in the Gulf, which is home to Mexico's biggest oil field.
Pemex has suffered a number of accidents in recent years, with at least 37 people killed by a blast at the company's Mexico City headquarters in 2013. Another 26 people were killed at a fire in a Pemex natural gas facility in September 2012.
(Reuters reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez and Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
Matt Johnston contributed to this report.
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