The fire was started after strong winds caused the partial collapse of one of the facilities, destroying a gas pipeline on the platform, the energy company stated.
Advertisement
Socar has also confirmed that workers on another oil rig, 18.6 miles from the fire-struck one, are missing after the storm.
The platform caught fire when an underwater gas pipeline was damaged in the heavy seas. Some 23 oil workers are listed as missing.
Azerbaijan’s Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Committee told the news wire on Saturday that 32 workers were killed and 42 others were rescued.
Firefighters are still scrambling to bring the blaze under control, said the SOCAR chief engineer, who mentioned the operation is hampered by waves that reached a height of three and half meters. Company statement said that 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.
The fire took place on the platform No 10 in Gunashli oil field.
THIRTY workers are feared dead after an oil rig in the Caspian Sea was engulfed by flames on Friday.
Azerbaijani prosecutors on Saturday launched a probe into possible “breaches of fire safety regulations”. A report on activities for the study of the causes and conditions of the incident, measures of search and rescue of the missing oil workers were presented at the meeting. Last year, 14 workers were killed on Socar platforms.
Socar is owned by the state of Azerbaijan, the largest petroleum company in the former Soviet Union after Kazakhstan and Russian Federation.
The bulk of Azerbaijan’s oil is produced elsewhere, however, including on fields operated by British oil major BP.
The Guneshli deposits were discovered in 1981 in the south Caspian Sea, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) east of the capital, Baku.
Advertisement
Around 60% of the company’s oil production passes through the platform where the fire occurred.
