Storm Strands Mexico Oil Workers at Sea, Ports Shut
Date: 25-Oct-07
Country: MEXICO
Author: Jason Lange
Mexico closed its main oil exporting ports in the crude-rich Gulf of Mexico as a cold front hit the area, cutting off most of the country's vital crude shipments to the United States.
State oil monopoly Pemex said 81 workers jumped from one platform into life rafts after rough seas caused a gas and oil leak. About 75 of them had been located but could not be reached, and the others were lost.
One life raft was missing and some workers could have fallen into the sea as 80 mph (130 kph) winds lashed the platform, Pemex's chief executive Jesus Reyes Heroles said late on Tuesday night.
He said he heard an unconfirmed report that two workers had died.
"We are still working to verify how many are in the (lost) life raft and to rescue those who were in the water. The weather has not helped," Reyes Heroles told Mexican television.
He described the damaged platform, 20 miles (32 km) from the port of Dos Bocas, as minor in terms of production but said mostly natural gas was still leaking from its well.
The government said most of Mexico's Gulf coast ports were closed, including the oil ports of Coatzacoalcos, Dos Bocas and Cayo Arcas.
Mexico is a top three supplier of crude oil to the United States, which takes around 80 percent of its southern neighbor's oil exports. Most of that is shipped from Gulf of Mexico ports.
Officials said ships stopped leaving the ports early on Tuesday and could not say when conditions would improve.
"There is bad weather at the moment. We don't know how long it will last, it could be two days," Sergio Cantarell, port captain in Ciudad del Carmen in Campeche state, told Reuters by telephone. "No ships are leaving. Everything is closed."
Pemex, which has exported an average of 1.708 million barrels of oil per day so far this year, said it should be able to adjust its shipping schedule to minimize the impact of the port closures.
(Additional reporting by Catherine Bremer))