Gas leak from underwater pipeline causes fire in Gulf of Mexico, report says

[Judi Lynn]

4. 'This Is Our Future' Without Climate Action, Advocates Warn After Pipeline Causes Fire in Gulf of Me

"Having to put out a fire in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico feels just too difficult to believe. And yet..."

JULIA CONLEY, STAFF WRITER

July 3, 2021

A fire that raged for hours in the Gulf of Mexico Friday offered the latest illustration of the climate emergency and the urgent need to end fossil fuel extraction and invest instead in burgeoning renewable energy industries.

An underwater gas pipeline controlled by Mexico's state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, also known as Pemex, burst in the early morning hours, sending flames "resembling molten lava" to the water's surface.

The "eye of fire," as news outlets and observers on social media called the blaze after Pemex publicized the incident Friday night, happened about 150 yards from a drilling platform in the Ku-Maloob-Zaap offshore field. According to Bloomberg, the field produces more than 700,000 barrels of oil per day.

It took emergency workers about five hours to put out the flames.

"Having to put out a fire in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico feels just too difficult to believe," tweeted HuffPost editor Philip Lewis. "And yet..."

More:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/03/our-future-without-climate-action-advocates-warn-after-pipeline-causes-fire-gulf