Image Credit : nypost.com
According to reports, earlier on Friday, a fire broke out in the Gulf of Mexico sending bright orange flame on the surface of the water following a gas leak in an undersea pipeline of a state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos or Pemex. The flames resembled molten lava and were named ‘Eye of fire’ on multiple social media platforms.
As per a Reuters report, Pemex notified that it might take more than five hours to extinguish the fire completely. A video on the incident portrayed that the blaze appears to be a circular shape from a few distances away from a Pemex oil platform.
A Pemex official informed Reuters, that the fire started in the underwater pipeline that connects to a platform at the firm’s flagship ‘Ku Maloob Zaap ‘ oil development. This flagship is located just up from the Gulf of Mexico’s southern rim.
🚨 Sobre el incendio registrado en aguas del Golfo de México, en la Sonda de Campeche, a unos metros de la plataforma Ku-Charly (dentro del Activo Integral de Producción Ku Maloob Zaap)
Tres barcos han apoyado para sofocar las llamas pic.twitter.com/thIOl8PLQo
— Manuel Lopez San Martin (@MLopezSanMartin) July 2, 2021
According to Reuters, the gas leak took place around 5:15 am local time and the flames were extinguished nearly 10:30 am of local time. Pemex reported that no injuries were caused due to the incident as yet. The company further notified that following the incident, oil production from its flagship project remained uninterrupted. It further stated that it has also closed the 12-inch diameter pipeline valves.
In accordance with an incident report, Reuters reported that the company used boats to pump waters over the flames, however, its workers further added that nitrogen was also utilized.
Angel Carrizales, head of Mexico’s oil safety regulator ASEA informed through Twitter that the fire incident ‘did not generate any spills’. On the other hand, he refused to give any further explanation of what was burning on the water surface.
The flagship project ‘Ku Maloob Zaap’ is reportedly Pemex’s biggest oil producer with around 40 percent of the firm’s nearly 1.7 million barrels of daily output obtained from it.