Pemex Says Platform Fire Under Control
Mexico's state-run oil company Pemex said on Saturday that a fire broke out in a machine room on a platform located in the company's top producing oilfield, but added that it would not affect production.
Pemex said via Twitter that the Zaap E platform, part of the Ku Maloob Zaap field located in shallow waters at the southern edge of the Gulf of Mexico, was being installed at the time so was not operational.
A spokesman for Pemex said that the incident would not affect production and the drilling platform was not estimated to start producing for around eight months. He said that there were no injuries and that 97 workers were evacuated.
The field produces around 860,000 barrels of crude per day, more than a third of Pemex's total crude production, according to the latest available figures.
The company added that the fire was under control and that there was no spill.
Gas Leaks
In October last year, Pemex platform Sihil A in the Gulf of Mexico suffered a gas leak. Eighty-five workers were evacuated but there were no injuries and no fire has been reported.
The leak marks the third time in six months that the state owned company has evacuated workers from the Bay of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico.
In April, Pemex’s Abkatun Alpha platform exploded killing four workers and injuring over 40 others.
In May, two workers died in a rig tilting incident, and in June, the Akal-H platform exploded after a gas leak. No one was injured in the incident.
Plans Approved
Earlier this month, Mexico's oil regulator voted on Tuesday to approve plans by national oil company Pemex to drill two new deepwater wells later this year near the maritime border with the United States in the Gulf of Mexico.
Both wells are expected to yield light or super light crude, and are within the Mexican extension of the Perdido Fold Belt, which has proved highly productive in adjacent U.S. waters but has represented a major challenge for Pemex due to its lack of specialized expertise.
The National Hydrocarbons Commission, known as the CNH, approved Pemex's request to drill the Vasto-1001 and Nobilis-1 wells, both off the coast of northeastern Tamaulipas state in the country's largely untapped deep waters of the Gulf.
Vasto-1001 will be drilled at a depth of 23,717 feet (7,229 meters), costing an estimated 3.4 billion pesos ($190 million) and believed to hold prospective resources of about 203 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in mostly light crude.
The nearby Nobilis-1 well will be 19,619 feet (5,980 meters) deep and cost about 2.73 billion pesos ($152.7 million). The deposit the well will explore is believed to hold prospective resources of about 161 million boe in mostly super light crude.
The location of the Nobilis-1 well is just over 4 miles (7 km) from Pemex's Maximino-1 well, one of the company's most promising deep water discoveries in recent years.