Rhino
10-25-2007, 10:31 AM
At Least 18 Killed, More Missing in Gulf of Mexico Oil Rig Accident
Thursday, October 25, 2007
MEXICO CITY — At least 18 oil workers were killed when a drilling rig hit an oil platform in stormy weather, spilling gas and oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the state-owned oil company said. Seven workers were still missing.
Rescuers pulled 61 oil workers to safety from storm-tossed waters Wednesday but have yet to control the oil and gas leak, Mexico's oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said in a news release.
Eighty-one workers and five rescue personnel abandoned a subcontractor's drilling rig known as the Usumacinta on Tuesday, after it hit the Kab 101 light-production platform and damaged a valve amid 25-foot waves and winds gusting to 80 mph.
One survivor, Eder Ortega Flores, 25, told the Televisa television network that workers abandoned the rig and braved the raging seas only after leaking gas rose to unbearable levels and the supply of air from emergency breathing devices ran out....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,304857,00.html
Thursday, October 25, 2007
MEXICO CITY — At least 18 oil workers were killed when a drilling rig hit an oil platform in stormy weather, spilling gas and oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the state-owned oil company said. Seven workers were still missing.
Rescuers pulled 61 oil workers to safety from storm-tossed waters Wednesday but have yet to control the oil and gas leak, Mexico's oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said in a news release.
Eighty-one workers and five rescue personnel abandoned a subcontractor's drilling rig known as the Usumacinta on Tuesday, after it hit the Kab 101 light-production platform and damaged a valve amid 25-foot waves and winds gusting to 80 mph.
One survivor, Eder Ortega Flores, 25, told the Televisa television network that workers abandoned the rig and braved the raging seas only after leaking gas rose to unbearable levels and the supply of air from emergency breathing devices ran out....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,304857,00.html