Pemex Gulf Accident Investigators Blocked From Site

By Andres R. Martinez

Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The Mexican attorney general's office blocked investigators from visiting the site of the Gulf of Mexico's deadliest offshore oil accident for more than two months, limiting the scope of a Petroleos Mexicanos study into the incident, a report says.

By the time the group was allowed to inspect the platform and rig involved in an Oct. 23, 2007, accident that killed 22 workers, the platform had shifted and site conditions had deteriorated, the Battelle Memorial Institute said in an estimated 1,000-page report prepared for Pemex, as the Mexico City-based oil company is known.

``The simultaneous investigation by the attorney general's office was one of the principal barriers that impeded the critical direction of this project,'' the report said. ``The delay complicated, in a significant manner, the efforts and deeds necessary to meet the expectations for this report.''

Battelle concluded in its report that to prevent accidents Pemex needs better worker training, risk models for disasters and weather forecasts. Mexico's comptroller and attorney general are still investigating whether any criminal actions occurred.

The delay in access was done to preserve any evidence on the platform and rig, the attorney general's office said in an e-mail response today.

The platform and rig were located 47 miles (75.6 kilometers) from Ciudad del Carmen in Mexico's Campeche state.

Pipeline Corrosion

The Battelle report also said Pemex was aware of leaks in a safety valve since 2003 and corrosion that led to problems at the site. Corrosion may have played a part in the Pemex leak that led to the platform evacuation, though Battelle was unable to inspect the valves and wells, according to the report.

``This is going to raise doubts as to whether we have all the information we need,'' George Baker, an independent energy analyst who covers Mexico, said today in an interview. ``If they closed their case this is all we are ever going to know.''

The Battelle report was the last of three studies released Oct. 31, all concluding that Pemex had not properly trained its workers for offshore accidents. The trio of reports cleared the company of wrongdoing.

A BP Plc Texas City refinery had an explosion that killed 15 workers in 2005. BP was fined $21 million and hit by more than 1,750 lawsuits.

Training Investment

Pemex was fined at least 3 million pesos ($233,918) for environmental damage from the accident. The company has spent more than 2 billion pesos on safety equipment, training and weather analysis since the accident.

``Historically, accidents at Pemex have not been cleared up adequately,'' said David Shields, an independent energy analyst who covers Mexico, today in an interview.

Pipeline corrosion also produced an oil leak and subsequent shutdown for four months of BP's Prudhoe Bay oilfield in Alaska, the nation's largest. BP in 2006 curtailed oil shipments from Prudhoe Bay, which pushed up the price of oil when it shut down.

A U.S. government official said the causes of BP's oil spill on Alaska's North Slope shared similarities with the problems that led to the Texas City refinery explosion. Cost cutting, production pressures and a failure to invest in the Texas City refinery left the plant ``vulnerable to a catastrophe,'' said a report by Carolyn Merritt, chief executive officer of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

House Energy Testimony

Merritt testified on May 16, 2007, at a subcommittee hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Category 1 hurricane conditions knocked Pemex's Usumacinta platform into a rig, prompting 73 workers to evacuate. Panic and confusion ensued during the evacuation after two oil leaks were reported, the report said.

Twenty-two of the workers drowned after they opened hatches in the escape vessel, which let in water and capsized the boats, according to the report.

A Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson starts at 75 miles-per-hour.

The Mexican attorney general's office did not let Battelle see the escape vessels until April, or board the Usumacinta platform until January, according to the report.

By then, platform operator Compania Perforadora la Central had done its own inspection and repairs. More than 30 storms hit the platform by the time Battelle was able to review the site, shifting the platform and damaging it further, the report said.

-- With reporting by Hugh Collins in Mexico City. Editor: Robin Saponar, Joe Link

To contact the reporter on this story: Andres R. Martinez in Mexico City at amartinez28@bloomberg.net