EXCLUSIVE Fire of marine platforms reduces the production of oil of Mexico in 444,000 bpd

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 23 (Reuters) – A fire that engulfed a Mexican oil-operated offshore oil rig, Pemex, reduced the company’s production by 444,000 barrels a day (bpd) due to lack of natural gas to reinject it into the crude fields, a company document was shown on Monday.

At least one person was killed and five others were missing after an explosion on Sunday at Pemex’s E-Ku-A2 platform, which is part of a gas processing center in the Ku-Maloob-Zaap complex in the Bay of Pemex. Logwood, in the Gulf of Mexico.

The fire, the second on an offshore Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMX.UL) platform in less than two months, was brought under control hours later. Both fires have put the focus on Pemex’s security protocols, given the refinery’s previous outages and fires. Read more

“It wasn’t a good weekend,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday, referring to the deaths due to the platform crash and Hurricane Grace.

A rapid drop in the availability of natural gas, which Pemex uses to increase oil in its offshore fields, dropped crude oil production by more than 719,000 bpd before the crash to nearly 275,000 bpd by early Monday, according to the document, seen by Reuters, detailing Ku-Maloob-Zaap operations.

It was not immediately clear whether Pemex was able to recover at least some of the lost production. The Ku-Maloob-Zaap oil field cluster is Pemex’s largest operating complex, accounting for more than 40% of its nearly 1.7 million barrels of daily crude production. The company did not respond to a request from Reuters for operational details.

Two sources familiar with Pemex’s operations said the fire affected the operational side of the platform, forcing the company to completely shut off the supply and distribution of gas to neighboring oil fields.

Pemex said early Monday that gas valves on the affected platform had been shut down to put out the fire, while an emergency plan was put in place to search for the missing people, all of them hired workers.

In July, a fire broke out against another Pemex platform in Campeche Bay following a submarine gas pipeline leak. The bright orange flames that resembled molten lava jumped out of the water, dubbed the “eye of fire” on social media because of the circular shape of the flare. This fire took more than five hours to go out completely. Read more

Reports by Stefanie Eschenbacher and Ana Isabel Martinez in Mexico City and Marianna Parraga in Houston; Edited by Dan Grebler and David Holmes

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