MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican state-run oil company Pemex said at least one person died and 16 were injured after a fire broke out on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, sparking the evacuation of around 300 workers.
Local emergency services reported that as many as 45 people were injured at the blaze that 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 had died in the blaze. One of the injured was in a serious condition, the company added.
Earlier, a spokesman for emergency services in the nearby city of Ciudad del Carmen said authorities had registered 45 people with injuries due to the fire.
The platform forms part of the Abkatun-Pol-Chuc offshore complex. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, production at the complex has fallen steadily since the 1990s to below 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2013.
Mexico currently produces just under 2.3 million bpd.
It was not immediately clear what had caused the fire in the Gulf, which is home to Mexico's biggest oil field.
Cotemar is based in Ciudad del Carmen and provides offshore services to Pemex including platform refurbishment, maintenance, and maritime transport, according to its website.
Pemex has suffered a number of accidents in recent years, with at least 37 people killed by a blast at the company's Mexico City headquarters in 2013. Another 26 people were killed at a fire in a Pemex natural gas facility in September 2012.
(Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez and Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Bernadette Baum and W Simon)