MEXICO CITY, April 6 (UPI) -- With three rig workers still missing, and four dead, after a rig explosion in the southern waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Greenpeace said enough is enough.
"It's time to expose the fossil fuel industry for what it really is; a mindless, out-of-control profit machine hell bent on making cash while sacrificing the welfare of our planet," the advocacy group said in a weekend statement.
Mexican state-controlled oil company Petróleos Mexicanos, known also as Pemex, reported a blaze Wednesday at its Abkatun platform in the Bay of Campeche in the southern waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The company said four workers were confirmed dead and more than a dozen others were injured. As of Sunday, the search was ongoing for three workers missing since Wednesday's incident.
The company produced more than half of its 2.3 million barrels per day reported since the end of February from the southern Gulf of Mexico. The incident follows a review of transboundary reserves from U.S. lawmakers and efforts from Pemex to team up with private companies after national energy reforms.
"Oil companies are reckless, stumbling, unwieldy behemoths and Pemex is no different," Greenpeace said.
After reforms were enacted last year, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto set a goal of producing 3.5 million barrels of oil per day by 2025, which would be a 40 percent increase from 2013 levels.
A 2013 methane gas leak in the basement of the Pemex headquarters in Mexico City left 37 people dead.
