The attorney general’s office of Mexico is investigating the Petróleos Mexicanos' (Pemex) Abkatún Permanente platform incident that left four dead, 16 injured and three missing, for possible charges of murder and mischief.

The Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) said in a statement on its website that they will be working with state and regional entities to begin questioning the incident and will use experts in the fields of photography, forensics, chemistry, fingerprinting, medicine, fire, explosives and mechanical engineering to help in the investigation.

According to the Agencia de Seguridad, Energia y Medio Ambiente (ASEA), Pemex reported and explosion and fire on the Abkatún Permanente at 3:40 a.m. CST, in the dehydration and pumping section of the platform. ASEA says that it will begin its investigation into the cause of the accident.

The fire aboard the Abkatún Permanente platform erupted in the early morning hours of 1 April and left four people dead, three Cotemar workers and one Pemex worker, and 16 with serious injuries, out of the 301 that were evacuated. Pemex confirmed that as of 2 April three workers, two Cotemar and one Pemex, have not been found.

Pemex confirmed that after the fire was extinguished on 1 April, authorities from PGR, the ASEA, and the secretary of labor and social welfare began to conduct their investigations to determine the cause of the fire.

Pemex included that the Abkatún Alfa has been determined to be structurally suitable to restore its operations and that the inspection process and safety systems to resume operations of the temporary platform of the center has been made.

Yesterday, the Mexican national company said that there would be minimal impact on production since the fire occurred in the processing platform and not the production platform.

The fire did not cause an oil spill in the Bay of Campeche and a hydrocarbon runoff that occurred was addressed with specialized vessels. In addition, the smoke that could be seen from the platform was from the crude oil that was in the pipeline, Pemex said.

Abkatún is part of Pemex's Abkatún-Pol-Chuc complex, that is located 132km northeast from the Port of Dos Bocas between the states of Campeche and Tabasco. Production at the light oil fields began in 1980.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, production from Abkatún-Pol-Chuc has declined from its mid-1990s peak levels, when output exceeded 700,000 b/d. Production was only reported to be under 300,000 b/d in 2013.

Source: www.oedigital.com

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