Fire on Pemex oil rig in Gulf of Mexico – four dead, three missing, others flee in boats

#Pemex #GulfOfMexico #Abkatun #oilplatform #CiudaddelCarmen The fire on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico left at least four dead with three more missing while the remaining persons out of a total of 300 on board managed to escape in boats.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 5 April 2015.
The platform was of Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex and the fire took place on the Abkatun-A Permanente shallow-water platform in the Campeche Sound. One of the missing workers was from Pemex, while the remaining two were employed by contractor Cotemar.

Investigation is on into the cause of the blaze, which injured 16 people, two seriously, and forced the evacuation of 300 workers. The injured workers were airlifted to the nearby city of Ciudad del Carmen.
Pemex has indicated that it managed to avert any significant oil spill that could have led to environmental damages because the fire was on a processing platform where the feeder lines could be turned off. If it had happened at an active oil well where there is a virtually unlimited amount of fuel flowing up from the seabed, the situation would have been different.
Fires and oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico in recent years is not new to Pemex – one was in 2007 that killed 21 workers. Then in 2012, an explosion in a Pemex gas pipeline killed 26 near the border with the United States. Later, in 2013 at least 33 people were killed in a blast at the Pemex headquarters – this was believed to be an accident.
However, the worst case was in 1984 when an explosion and fire at a gas plant on the outskirts of Mexico City left at least 500 dead.

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Creating artificial reefs - 18000-tons of concrete to be dumped into Gulf of Mexico

#gulfofmexico #artificialreefs In order to rebuild the damaged reef systems around Florida's Collier County in the Gulf of Mexico due to Hurricanes and changing currents work would be taken up to create artificial reefs by depositing 18000 tons of concrete in the Gulf.
The work would be done simultaneously with the cities of Marco and Naples.
Once the dumping of the concrete on the sea bed is complete, it will be the biggest artificial reef in the Western Hemisphere. A total of 36 individual reefs are proposed to be built in groups of six, and further extension can always be done and new refs can be added a indicated by a member of the region's Economic Recovery Task Force.
The funds for the project to the tune of $1.5 million is being made available in part by a grant from the BP oil spill restoration fund, apart from private donations. It is expected that in addition to boosting the local marine ecosystem, the artificial reef system will ultimately bring in $30 million to the area annually. These reefs could offer a safe habitat for young sport fish, which are popular with Gulf fishermen, and also create a popular area for divers to explore.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for 8 January 2015 and, by December 2015, will set out into the Gulf by flotilla. The project would take approximately six months for completion and fishes could start moving in within 12 hours after the reef is created.