Azerbaijan: Oil rig on fire in Caspian, 25 workers rescued

But no information was available from the government or the oil company about how many workers were on the platform when the fire broke out or how many were missing. “Right now 29 people have been rescued”, SOCAR said, declining to detail how many people are still stranded on the platform.

Adverse weather conditions and the strong storm have complicated the rescue work. Now a search is underway for those missing. The workers that were on the platform are alright. It was not clear whether his statement was now out of date.

In a telephone call from the oil platform, a worker told Reuters news agency that 84 workers were trapped.

In a separate incident, SOCAR said on Friday that three workers were missing from another of its offshore oil platforms in the Caspian after an accident during the storm.

A total of 14 workers were killed in accidents on SOCAR’s oil and gas platforms in 2014.

Azerbaijan, which borders Russian Federation and Iran, has become a major regional player in oil and gas, helping to deliver energy to the West via Turkey and bypassing Russian Federation.

The missing workers were in a lifeboat that fell into stormy seas, according to a joint statement issued late Saturday by SOCAR, the country’s emergency services and the prosecutor general’s office.