Three Workers Missing After Mexico Ammonia Spill
Date: 15-Apr-05
Country: MEXICO
Two of the five workers at a company hired by state oil monopoly Pemex to repair a pipeline had reappeared and were undergoing medical tests, while the other three were still unaccounted for, a Pemex spokesman said.
Local authorities said around 6,000 people living nearby had to be evacuated following Wednesday afternoon's leak, the latest in a series of messy spills this year from cash-strapped Pemex's aging and corroded pipelines.
"In all the confusion it seems these workers fled from the area. But two of them reappeared last night. Only three are still missing," the Pemex spokesman said.
Pemex Chief Executive Luis Ramirez flew early on Thursday to inspect the spill site at the town of Nanchital in the Gulf of Mexico state of Veracruz, where locals have suffered hundreds of small but often toxic spills in past years.
Nanchital, a town made up mostly of Pemex workers but also home to fishing families, was hit by a large crude oil spill in December that stained riverbanks and beaches with smears of black oil, and killed seabirds and fish.
Wednesday's accident occurred just before Ramirez went before the Senate to discuss the problem in Veracruz state.
Ramirez told the Senate that despite its tight budget, Pemex was channeling more resources into improving safety.
Pemex, which has to pay 61 percent of its revenues each year in taxes, has begged the government for money to repair its pipelines, half of which are more than 30 years old.
After the media attention from more than half a dozen oil and fuel spills in the past few months, Pemex said it needed $9 billion over three years to repair 22,961 miles (33,738 km) of its pipelines.
The world's No. 5 producer of oil by volume and a major supplier to the United States, Pemex daily sends 3.4 million barrels of oil and 4.8 billion cubic feet of gas through its 37,904-mile (61,000-km) pipeline network.
