Thirty-two people were rescued, it said. The Reuters report noted that this statement may be out of date, and the SOCAR Facebook page also said that 26 workers were rescued on Saturday.
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The state oil company and the government had declined to say how many workers were on the platform when the fire started or how many had been missing.
Azerbaijan emergency management services rescued 19 people Saturday from a maritime oil platform that caught fire and had its flames whipped up by stormy winds in waters of the Caspian Sea, according to the State Petroleum Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, or SOCAR.
The storm had on Friday damaged a gas line on platform number 10 in the deepwater Guneshli section of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli offshore oil field, causing the fire, SOCAR said in a statement.
A still image from a video footage shows an oil platform on fire in the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, December 5, 2015.
Azerbaijan’s state prosecutor’s office said the person had died on Friday night when the lifeboat he was in with three others was hit by heavy winds.
Mirvari Gakhramanly, who heads a non-governmental organization that defends the rights of oil workers, had told The Associated Press earlier Saturday that 32 workers were believed to be missing as a result of an overturned lifeboat.
An unnamed SOCAR worker called Reuters from the oil platform and claimed that 84 people were trapped by the oil rig fire at one point.
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.
The bulk of Azerbaijan’s oil is produced elsewhere, however, including on fields operated by British oil major BP.
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It was unclear whether any of the missing workers would be found alive. All in all, 14 workers were killed in accidents on SOCAR’s oil and gas platforms in 2014.
