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Pemex tanker listing after fire in Gulf of Mexico

Mexican authorities working to contain a minor release of material spilled from fuel tanker.

By Daniel J. Graeber
Crews responding to latest incident to strike a Mexican oil company working through reforms. No injuries and only minor release reported after a fire breaks out on a fuel tanker. Photo courtesy of Pemex
Crews responding to latest incident to strike a Mexican oil company working through reforms. No injuries and only minor release reported after a fire breaks out on a fuel tanker. Photo courtesy of Pemex

MEXICO CITY, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- In the latest in a string of accidents, a Mexican oil company said insurance companies are ready to act and investigators are on scene after a fuel tanker fire.

The state company known as Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, reported a fire at its Burgos fuel tanker situated off the port of Veracruz was suppressed. Work is underway to level the vessel and investigators were on scene to determine the cause.

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"Insurance companies are ready to act in the aforementioned time," the company said in a statement.

No injuries were reported among the 31 personnel on board the vessel, which had a double hull to prevent any release of material. Burgos was carrying a combined cargo of 150,000 barrels of fuel products.

Pemex said there was a minimum amount of fuels released, which it said was being contained by Mexican Navy vessels.

The incident is the latest in a string of accidents for the Mexican oil company. Earlier this year, three rig workers died as a result of an accident at the Abkatun-A offshore drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico after a fire broke out.

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At least one of the workers was employed by Pemex. Others were contractors.

Six total fatalities were reported as a result of rig malfunctions in the Gulf of Mexico in 2014.

Mexico, meanwhile, aims to produce around 3.5 million bpd by 2025, through a series of reforms that include the privatization of the state-controlled oil company. Pemex is among those companies reassessing its options, however, given the low price for crude oil and the country as a whole is faced with declining production in part because of the market pressures.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's is moving to draw private investors to the state energy sector after more than 70 years of a monopoly controlled by Pemex.

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