Pemex restores oil output suspended after fatal fire

Mexican national oil and gas company Pemex has restarted production from its Ku-Maloob-Zaap complex, located offshore Mexico, following a shutdown due to a fatal incident earlier in August.

The fire erupted on the E-Ku-A2 platform located in the Bay of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, 22 August 2021. The incident resulted in the deaths of five workers, injuries to six workers while two went missing.

According to Pemex, the incident occurred while the Cotemar and BMCI workers were carrying out scheduled maintenance tasks and did not occur due to the lack of investment in the maintenance of its facilities.

In an update on Monday, Pemex said it had resumed 421,000 barrels per day in oil production and brought back online 125 wells. Due to this incident, a production of 1.6 million barrels was deferred, according to Pemex.

This was the second incident for Pemex in less than two months after the “Eye of fire” appeared near the company’s Ku Maloob Zaap oil development in early July. A gas leak from an underwater pipeline was responsible for starting the blaze captured in videos that quickly went viral.

Pemex later said that environmental damage from the incident was avoided due to quick action by its workers.