Pemex: 3 Rig Incidents in 3 Months

Since a deadly blast on April 1 ripped apart one of its offshore platforms, Mexico’s state oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) remains unclear as to how much production it has lost.

Pemex has said the disaster, its deadliest this year, affected about 1.5 million barrels of production. But Energy Ministry reports show the actual figure is 2.7 million barrels higher at 4.2 million barrels in lost output since April 1.

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The lost production comes on the heels of the company’s third platform fire in three months.

Pemex, the world’s ninth-largest crude producer, reported a fire June 22 at its Akal-H platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Leaking natural gas and oil have been detected at the platform, the company said.

The accident is under control and three other workers involved did not suffer injuries, the company said.

The accident at the Akal-H platform is Pemex’s third since April 1, when seven people died in a fire at the Abkatun A- Permanente platform. Two other workers died last month when a jack-up rig operated by Typhoon Offshore SAPI de CV collapsed in the Campeche Bay. Pemex signed a contract with Industrias Metalicas de Tris SA for 12.2 million pesos ($795,000) in 2007 to upgrade the security system on the Akal-H platform.

Pemex, which has seen production decline every year for a decade, is looking to bring in private partners as Mexico’s energy industry opens to allow competition for the first time in more than seven decades. The company reported a loss of $6.5 billion in the first quarter amid falling oil prices.

The company halted production at the Akal-H platform. Its other wells in the area are operating normally, according to a press official who must remain anonymous due to company policy.