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Azerbaijan: 29 still missing from burning oil platform

SOCAR said one worker had been killed and 33 rescued, out of the 62 who were on the oil rig when the fire started.

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SOCAR said on its Facebook page on Saturday that 26 workers had been rescued from the platform.

Erdogan added that Turkey is ready to offer support to the Azerbaijani nation.

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.

The independent Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Committee told Reuters that 32 platform workers were killed in the blaze and 42 rescued.

SOCAR said in a statement that a storm had on Friday damaged a gas line on the platform causing the fire. The workers in the other lifeboat were rescued Saturday, it said.

In 2011, a drilling platform sank in a storm off Russia’s far eastern coast, killing 53 people.

The bulk of Azerbaijan’s oil is produced elsewhere, however, including on fields operated by British oil major BP.

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

The workers evacuated the platform, getting into two lifeboats, which were then lowered to 10 meters above the water, the statement said.

BP Azerbaijan was not available for comment on whether adverse weather in the Caspian or the fire on SOCAR’s platform had affected its production. 30 workers are still missing.

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The missing staff have been in a lifeboat in that fell in to stormy seas, in accordance to a joint assertion issued late Sat.by SOCAR, the country’s emergency services & the prosecutor general’s workplace.

At Least One Dead and 30 Missing After Oil Rig Catches Fire in the Caspian Sea