1 dead, 30 missing in oil rig fire

The fire is said to have began after a storm on Friday damaged a gas line.

Rescue workers managed to evacuate 33 people from the rig, where they had been hanging in lifeboats 10 metres (35 feet) above the stormy waters.

In a separate incident, three SOCAR workers were reported missing from another platform in the Caspian Sea during the storm. The workers in the other lifeboat were rescued Saturday. Firefighters battled Saturday to control the fire, which is the deadliest incident in the company’s history, he said. Chad’s government in November imposed a state of emergency in the area. “The fire on the platform was finally extinguished”, said Gakhramanly.

A major fire has broken out on an offshore oil platform in Azerbaijan’s waters. Robust winds & waves as much as 33 ft. high made rescue operations extraordinarily troublesome, the assertion stated. Poor weather conditions are continuing to hamper rescue efforts.

It’s unclear how much oil, if any, has been spilled into the Caspian Sea has a result of the fires. It’s unclear if any workers remain on board, and SOCAR did not respond to a VICE News inquiry seeking clarification. All in all, 14 workers were killed in accidents on SOCAR’s oil and gas platforms in 2014.

A still image from a video footage shows an oil platform on fire in the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan yesterday.

The company lost five workers in 2013 and 14 previous year in similar accidents, said Mirvari Qahramanli, head of the Center for Protection of Oil Workers’ Rights, a Baku-based advocacy group.

There are fears more than 30 workers have been killed after an offshore oil platform burst into flames in Azerbaijan.