By Ana Isabel Martinez
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican state-run oil company Pemex said at least four people died after a fire broke out on a production platform in the Gulf of Mexico early on Wednesday, sparking the evacuation of around 300 workers.
Local emergency services said as many as 45 people were injured in the blaze, which erupted overnight on the Abkatun Permanente platform in the oil-rich Bay of Campeche.
Pemex said it was battling the flames with eight firefighting boats and that a contractor for Mexican oil services company Cotemar was one of the dead.
Videos posted on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) showed the offshore platform engulfed in flames, lighting up the night sky, as rescue workers looked on from nearby ships.
The fire broke out in the dehydration and pumping area of the platform, Pemex said, though it was not clear what caused it. There was no oil spill, a company spokesman said.
Authorities gave differing estimates on how many were hurt by the fire. A spokesman for emergency services in the nearby city of Ciudad del Carmen said on Wednesday morning that 45 people had been registered with injuries.
Part of the Abkatun Pol Chuc offshore complex, the damaged platform produces around 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) and production has been suspended, the Pemex spokesman said.
In total, the Abkatun Pol Chuc complex produces around 300,000 bpd. Output at the rest of the site was unaffected.
Mexico is the world's No. 10 crude producer at just under 2.3 million bpd, down about a third from a peak of 3.4 million bpd in 2004.
Pemex has had a number of accidents in recent years and the latest one comes as Mexico seeks to lure private investors to revive its flagging oil industry.
At least 37 people were killed by a blast at Pemex's Mexico City headquarters in 2013, and another 26 people died in a fire at a Pemex natural gas facility in northern Mexico in September 2012.
Last year, Mexico finalized a reform to end Pemex's 75-year-old oil and gas monopoly, but expectations of a boom in private investment have been tempered by the plunge in global crude prices.
Cotemar is based in Ciudad del Carmen and provides offshore services to Pemex, including platform refurbishment, maintenance, and maritime transport, according to its website.