Pemex Training Faulted in Accident That Killed 22

By Andres R. Martinez and Hugh Collins

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Petroleos Mexicanos, the state- owned oil company, needs better training for offshore workers and improved weather forecasts to prevent accidents such as the one that killed 22 production platform workers last year, according to an independent report.

Panic and disorder led to the death of the workers on the Usumacinta platform in the Gulf of Mexico, Mario Molina said today at a press conference in Mexico City. Molina, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, was hired by the state oil company known as Pemex to study the Gulf's deadliest offshore oil accident.

Twenty-two people were killed after a drilling rig hit a floating oil production platform on Oct. 23, 2007. Pemex ended its contracts with the platform operator Compania Perforadora la Central after the accident and initiated its own investigation.

``The weather bulletins lacked the details necessary to develop the risk model, which was equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane,'' the report said. ``All of the personnel in Bay of Campeche must be trained immediately to survive at sea.''

Eighty-six employees had been working on the platform when waves as high 26 feet (8 meters) and wind gusts of 81 miles (130 kilometers) hit. A Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Sampson starts at 75 miles-per-hour.

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

Multiple Reports

Molina's report is the first of three to be released. The government has yet to release a report from its own investigation. Pemex plans to issue its report at 4 p.m. local time today.

``We can't place the blame with anyone in particular,'' Molina said. ``It was a failure of the system, of the way the protocols were written.''

Pemex offshore and Gulf port operations often close during the winter for short periods of time as so-called ``nortes'' storms roll through, bringing intense rain and waves. A week after last year's accident, Pemex shut in 600,000 barrels of oil in the Gulf because of a similar weather situation.

Mexico pumps about 80 percent of its oil from the Gulf of Mexico.

Pemex made undisclosed payments to the families of the dead as a settlement to the accident.

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