Listing Pemex tanker set to be righted in Gulf of Mexico

VERACRUZ — Government-owned oil company Pemex says it has hired a Houston-based salvor to help right the 40,300-dwt Burgos tanker that is still listing in the Gulf of Mexico only a few kilometers from shore near Veracruz.

In the latest in a string of accidents, Mexican oil company Pemex said insurance companies are ready to act and investigators are on scene after last weekend’s massive fire aboard the vessel.

The state company known as Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, reported a fire at its Burgos fuel tanker situated off the port of Veracruz was suppressed. Work is underway to level the vessel and investigators were on scene to determine the cause.

“Insurance companies are ready to act in the aforementioned time,” the company said in a statement.

No injuries were reported among the 31 personnel on board the vessel, which had a double hull to prevent any release of material. Burgos was carrying a combined cargo of 150,000 barrels of fuel products.

The incident is the latest in a string of accidents for the Mexican oil company. Earlier this year, three rig workers died as a result of an accident at the Abkatun-A offshore drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico after a fire broke out.

At least one of the workers was employed by Pemex. Others were contractors.

Six total fatalities were reported as a result of rig malfunctions in the Gulf of Mexico in 2014.

Mexico, meanwhile, aims to produce around 3.5 million bpd by 2025, through a series of reforms that include the privatization of the state-controlled oil company. Pemex is among those companies reassessing its options, however, given the low price for crude oil and the country as a whole is faced with declining production in part because of the market pressures.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto‘s is moving to draw private investors to the state energy sector after more than 70 years of a monopoly controlled by Pemex.

Source: upi.com