Azerbaijan: 1 dead, 30 missing, 33 saved after oil rig fire

At least one person is dead and 30 others are missing after an offshore oil rig caught fire on Friday in the Caspian Sea.

The country’s president says one worker was killed, 32 were rescued and an operation is underway to find those still missing in the fire that began Friday.

State oil company Socar told the BBC that 63 workers had been on the Guneshli platform at the time and that 32 had been rescued so far. “Right now 29 people have been rescued”, SOCAR said, declining to detail how many people are still stranded on the platform.

The giant rescue operation is ongoing, but efforts are being complicated by a severe storm. REUTERS TV / Reuters The staff evacuated the platform, stepping in to two lifeboats, which have been then lowered to 10 meters above the water, the assertion stated.

The fire started overnight at a rig at the Gunashli field southeast of Neft Daşları (Oil Rocks) settlement. It’s the deadliest incident Socar, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, has ever recorded, he said.

Situated between Russian Federation and Iran, Azerbaijan is a key partner in projects to deliver Caspian Sea energy reserves to the west through pipelines to Turkey, bypassing Russian Federation.

In 2010, an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and sent millions of barrels of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.

Since Friday is an offshore oil platform in the Caspian Sea in flames.