By IANS
Mexico City : At least 10 people were killed when a drilling platform and an oil rig collided in the southern Gulf of Mexico, state-owned petroleum giant Pemex has said.
The company said in a statement that high seas and winds up to 130 km an hour were apparently the cause of Wednesday’s collision between the Kab 101 light-production rig and the Usumacinta drilling platform, 32 km off the port of Dos Bocas in the southwestern state of Tabasco, Spanish news agency EFE reported.
Four ships and eight helicopters of the Mexican navy joined the Pemex team of rescuers.
Mexico’s environment secretary, Juan Rafael Elvira, said it was too soon to evaluate the environment damage from the accident or to estimate the amount of oil and gas that spilled into the Gulf but the company said it was trying to “contain the zone of the spill”.