Oil production unaffected by tilted vessel: Pemex

OREANDA-NEWS. Mexico's state-run Pemex and contractor Typhoon Offshore are investigating what caused a maintenance vessel to tilt in an ongoing incident that claimed two lives yesterday.

Pemex says oil production has not been affected.

The Troll Solution jack-up vessel, which belongs to Typhoon, part of Mexican conglomerate Grupo Salinas, was about to carry out maintenance work on Pemex?s Caan Alf platform when the vessel started to list, prompting Pemex to evacuate 101 workers.

Pemex and Typhoon have not commented today on whether the vessel continues to list or has stabilized.

Caan Alf, located in the shallow Campeche bay in the Gulf of Mexico, produced 11,871 b/d in March, according to Pemex data.

This is the second deadly incident in Pemex?s southwestern maritime region in just over a month. A 1 April fire aboard the processing platform Abkatun-A Permanente, part of the Abkatun-Pol-Chuc complex, killed at least four workers and injured 45 others, causing the loss of 220,000 b/d of oil production for five days.

After the Abkatun-A Permanente accident, Pemex said it is maintaining its original 2015 production forecast of 646,000 b/d and 1.442bn ft3/d of natural gas for the southwestern maritime region.

Typhoon Offshore said 10 of its employees had been injured yesterday and that "the causes of the accident will be investigated by federal and state authorities, together with specialized experts."

No crude oil has spilled as a result of the incident, but Pemex said some of the diesel from the stricken vessel's engine had spilled in the water when it started tilting.