Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company Petroleos Mexicanos, also known as Pemex, confirmed on Sunday one death and several injuries due to a fire at its Akal-B marine platform in the Campeche Sound.
On 6 April, a fire broke out on a platform at the Akal-B Process Centre (Akal-B1) in an area containing pipelines that handle gas fuel for turbomachinery, according to a statement from Pemex. The company stated that five of the nine injured individuals were its employees, with the remaining being from other companies. It said the fire was brought under control in less than 20 minutes, and the deceased person was employed by another company, COTER.
📌 Actualiza #PEMEX información sobre el incendio en la plataforma marina Akal-B en la Sonda de Campeche.https://t.co/5EOiXIJQ8y pic.twitter.com/QV54GYmZgl
— Petróleos Mexicanos (@Pemex) April 7, 2024
The Akal-B platform, part of Pemex's ageing Cantarell complex of shallow water wells, produces approximately 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Around 20 years ago, the platform was one of the leading fields globally, generating more than two million barrels per day, as reported by Reuters.
The company has not shared more details about the consequences of the platform fire, including its potential to halt or delay production.
“The inspection and evaluation of the area continues to be carried out to establish the causes of this fire and the actions that allow the reestablishment of the operation of the process center,” the statement read.
With the largest supply of petroleum products in Mexico, Pemex “maintains important market shares in the sale of the main fuels", representing 70.8% of the company’s total income from internal sales in 2023. At the end of 2023, the company achieved a net profit of 110bn pesos (around $6.1bn) and an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin of 21%.
