Oil company behind Gulf fireball blames lightning strike

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An underwater fireball that proliferated in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday raises questions about the safety of offshore oil and gas development and climate change. Now the company behind the incident says love at first sight was at the source.

The fire, which erupted in Campeche Bank near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula around 5:15 a.m. on July 2, was the result of an open valve in an undersea pipeline, according to Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the petroleum developer. and Mexican state gas.

The fire started when gas escaping from the pipe, located in one of the company’s most productive offshore oil fields, Ku-Maloob-Zap, migrated from the seabed to the ocean surface. Pemex said in a statement Monday. As a thunderstorm swept over the Gulf, lightning struck gas that had infiltrated the ocean’s surface, creating a bubbling orb of glowing orange flames – an image that quickly went viral on Friday as the Wider concern about the implications of the climate crisis was mounting.

The depth of the fireball – and the extent of the damage to the ecosystem – is currently unclear, although most reports cite the fire as only existing on the ocean surface. where he had access to oxygen. It took about five hours for emergency crews to extinguish the flames and shut off the valve on the leaking pipeline, extinguishing the blaze completely, Pemex said.

The company plans to investigate the source of the fire, but currently says no oil was spilled in the gas leak that led to the creation of the fireball. Angel Carrizales, head of Agencia de Seguridad, Energía y Ambiente (ASEA), the federal oil and gas regulator, corroborated this claim on Twitter, quickly drawing criticism from his followers who noted that the leak gas and fire would probably have environmental implications.

In a statement released on Monday, Greenpeace Mexico joined two dozen other environmental groups, including the Mexican Alliance Against Fracking and the Mexican Climate Initiative, in criticizing Pemex as a contributor to “the ecocide “of the fossil fuel industry. The non-profit environmental association said deep-water drilling was “at high risk” to workers and marine ecosystems, and criticized Pemex for operating allegedly aging infrastructure with reduced performance, including leaks. of methane.

“All of the above make Pemex an unsustainable company, both economically, socially and environmentally,” the statement said.

The group calls on the Mexican government and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (a strong supporter of state energy sovereignty) to ban hydraulic fracturing, stop deep-water mining, and phase out oil and gas infrastructure while by investing in renewable energies.

Pemex has a long history of spills and pipeline accidents; Friday’s spill is the last of at least three to occur nationwide this year, CBS News reported on Friday. A 2019 Guardian survey of emissions data found the company to be the ninth most polluting oil and gas producer in the world.

Greenpeace Mexico energy and climate change specialist Pablo Ramírez attributes the fire in part to Pemex’s financial situation: the company was in billions of dollars in debt at the end of 2020 and neglected to repair its infrastructure for fiscal reasons. While the damage this will cause to Mexico’s marine ecosystems is not yet known, Ramírez predicts it will be substantial.

“The Gulf of Mexico region is home to several species listed as critically endangered, such as the hammerhead shark and various types of turtles,” he said. “We are talking about a huge methane leak that started a fire that lasted several hours. It will certainly have an impact. ”

A request for comment sent to Pemex was not immediately responded to.

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