During the afternoon of this Sunday, a fire was reported on a marine platform of Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), which is located in the Gulf of Mexico off the state of Campeche.
As indicated by Reuters, this information has been confirmed by two fuetees familiar with the situation and although there is no official position from Pemex so far, various media and social networks have already begun to provide some details in this regard.
The incident allegedly took place on the Ku-Alfa platform, part of its largest producer complex: Ku Maloob Zaap (KMZ).
According to the information available, the fire occurred when the platform was in operation, with which the workers would be being evacuated to floteles, some vessels designed to house the operators who work on the hydrocarbon extraction platforms.
Senator Emilio Álvarez Icaza Longoria indicated from his Twitter account that the Pemex platform explosion occurred around three in the afternoon this Sunday, while detailing “there are talk of 6 injured. Apparently the fire has been controlled ”.
It is important to mention that during the past month, after a gas leak was reported, Pemex put out a fire generated in an underwater pipeline connecting two KMZ platforms, which represents more than 40 percent of the 1.68 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude that the firm produces.
Pemex has not had a good time in recent months, the reputation of the Mexican parastatal has been compromised at various times, just a few weeks ago it had the problem of losing several of its stations selling them to other brands, so its market share it was little by little diminished.
For the parastate it is not a simple situation, Pemex’s numbers have been declining since 2019, prior to the pandemic, the Statista platform assured it by indicating that in 2019, the net sales of the state-owned producer, transporter, refiner and marketer of oil and natural gas in Mexico, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), reported revenues in excess of US $ 74.3 billion, which was a drop of around 12.9 percent compared to net sales reported in 2018.
The situation worsened in 2020, with the arrival of the Coronavirus pandemic, because after not meeting the goals due to the delay in the construction of infrastructure and drilling of wells in the 20 new fields identified as priorities, it did not allow it to be met.
For the Mexican government, it is essential to start working on the image of the parastatal, since the first president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has mentioned on more than one occasion his intention to improve the conditions of Pemex and the Federal Electricity Commission. , “Strengthen Pemex and strengthen the Federal Electricity Commission, rescue them, because they were deliberately destroying them to leave the energy market to individuals, to private national companies. and above all foreigners ”, mentioned in February of this year.
Explosion in Ku Alpha #KuAlfa,
It has no science to govern, I am going to save Pemex, he said …
The fourth goes! pic.twitter.com/TKmXwkV0tp
– Lizzi Gotti 💭 (@Lizgottik) August 22, 2021
🇲🇽 | NOW: Explosion and fire at Pemex’s Ku Alfa oil company: pic.twitter.com/lVZSa25msl
– Alert News 24 (@ AlertNews24) August 22, 2021
A Pemex platform is burning. An explosion and fire are reported on the Ku-Alfa platform in the Campeche probe. Pemex ensures that the fire is controlled. pic.twitter.com/znwo5phtfX
– Javier Alatorre (@Javier_Alatorre) August 22, 2021