Pemex May Tear Down Offshore Platform

Pemex said it may tear down an offshore platform if its structure, hurt by a series of recent fires, weakens further to prevent more damage to adjacent oil-pumping facilities. On Tuesday, a fire broke out at the Kab-121 well on the Kab-101 platform in the Gulf of Mexico, which was damaged in a blaze last month that killed 21 workers. The platform is being repaired but the fire has not been extinguished yet. Pemex would consider tearing down the Usumacinta platform, connected by a bridge to neighboring Kab-101 where most of the wells are located, to control the fire and stop oil leaks into the sea. Pemex, a top-three supplier of oil to the United States, has suffered repeated disruptions to its production and shipping operations this year due to stormy weather in the Gulf of Mexico. The state-controlled firm also has been struck in 2007 by a small Marxist rebel group that twice bombed onshore fuel pipelines, crippling chunks of industry for several days. Source: Economic Times