2 killed, 1 missing as oil platform catches fire in Gulf of Mexico

The Nohoch Alfa offshore platform in the Bay of Campeche, Gulf of Mexico, caught fire on Friday, killing two people. One person is still missing, according to a statement from the state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

Pemex reports that 321 out of the 328 employees who were working on the building when the fire started have already been evacuated. To put out the fires on the oil platform, four boats have been dispatched.

Earlier, the state-owned oil company reported that at least six people had been hurt.

In the most recent video statement posted to Pemex's Twitter account, director Octavio Romero Oropeza claimed that the company that was working at the facility, not Pemex, was responsible for the two fatalities and the missing person.

Oropeza stated that Pemex is looking into the cause of the fire and that the area of the platform where the fire originated has been 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.