One Dead, 30 Missing in Azerbaijan Oil, Gas Rig Fire – Oil Company

SOCAR said a search-and-rescue operation for the 30 missing workers is now underway.

State oil company Socar told that 32 were saved up to now and that 63 workers had been in the time.

The oil rig’s stricken gas line had been damaged by winds of up to 144 kilometres an hour, the prosecution service said.

Thirty-two people were rescued, it said.

The fire has since been extinguished, however the storm caused added difficulties to the fire crews.

In all, 33 workers were rescued.

The missing workers were on a lifeboat that toppled into heavy seas late Friday after the oil platform caught fire when an underwater gas pipeline was damaged in the storm.

A major fire has broken out on an offshore oil platform in Azerbaijan’s section of the Caspian Sea. 30 people are still missing. The workers were wearing life vests, according to the company, and some of them were recovered from the sea at a considerable distance from the rig.

A still image from a video footage shows an oil platform on fire in the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, December 5, 2015.

The deadliest incident in recent decades occurred in the North Sea in 1988, when the Piper Alpha oil platform operated by the US-based Occidental Petroleum exploded, killing 167 people.

BP Azerbaijan was not available for comment on Saturday on whether adverse weather in the Caspian or the fire on SOCAR’s platform had affected its production.

An official at SOCAR, which owns the platform, did not confirm that report nor others that speak of several people dead and missing in the fire. It was unclear if any of the missing workers would be found alive.