Gas leak from underwater pipeline causes fire in Gulf of Mexico, report says

[Judi Lynn]

It was extinguished hours later, according to Reuters.

Abrar Al-Heeti
July 2, 2021 3:56 p.m. PT

A gas leak form an underwater pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico led to a raging fire on the ocean's surface Friday, Reuters reported. The fire, which burned west of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, was extinguished hours later, state oil company Pemex told the publication. Pemex didn't immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.

Twitter user Manuel Lopez San Martin shared videos of the fire, including a shot of boats working to put out the flames.

. . .

Link to tweet

The fire started in an underwater pipeline connecting to a platform at Pemex's Ku Maloob Zaap oil development, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Workers controlled the fire using nitrogen, one source said. There were reportedly no injuries.

An incident report shared with Reuters reportedly said, "The turbomachinery of Ku Maloob Zaap's active production facilities were affected by an electrical storm and heavy rains." Pemex told Reuters it would investigate what led to the incident.

More:
https://www.cnet.com/news/gas-leak-from-underwater-pipeline-causes-fire-in-gulf-of-mexico-report-says/

[getagrip_already]

1. uhmm, so the fire is out but the gas leak continues?

What could possibly go wrong?

[Blue Owl]

2. Oh, but windmills cause cancer, right FF45?

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. Shit, that is terribly bad news...and to be quite honest, it is probably happening

at a LOT of different places, but just haven't caught on fire. I wonder how this one started.

[Judi Lynn]

4. 'This Is Our Future' Without Climate Action, Advocates Warn After Pipeline Causes Fire in Gulf of Me

"Having to put out a fire in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico feels just too difficult to believe. And yet..."

JULIA CONLEY, STAFF WRITER

July 3, 2021

A fire that raged for hours in the Gulf of Mexico Friday offered the latest illustration of the climate emergency and the urgent need to end fossil fuel extraction and invest instead in burgeoning renewable energy industries.

An underwater gas pipeline controlled by Mexico's state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, also known as Pemex, burst in the early morning hours, sending flames "resembling molten lava" to the water's surface.

The "eye of fire," as news outlets and observers on social media called the blaze after Pemex publicized the incident Friday night, happened about 150 yards from a drilling platform in the Ku-Maloob-Zaap offshore field. According to Bloomberg, the field produces more than 700,000 barrels of oil per day.

It took emergency workers about five hours to put out the flames.

"Having to put out a fire in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico feels just too difficult to believe," tweeted HuffPost editor Philip Lewis. "And yet..."

More:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/03/our-future-without-climate-action-advocates-warn-after-pipeline-causes-fire-gulf