Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Leakage underwater pipe pipa thas sparked fires at sea level Gulf of Mexico, Friday (3/7) early morning local time.
Video footage of the sea smoldering by fire has gone viral, so netizens have dubbed it the ‘portal of hell’, ‘devil’s eye’, ‘eyes of sauron from the Lord of the Ring’, to ‘eyes of fire’.
The nicknames cannot be separated from the appearance of the flames burning in a circle–colored like orange–trying to come out of the ocean like lava erupting from an underwater mountain.
As reported by Reuters, the underwater pipeline that fuels the ‘burning of the ocean’ belongs to Mexico’s national energy company, Pemex. The fire itself reportedly started at 05.15 local time in an undersea pipeline connecting to the Ku Maloob Zaap satellite platform.
Ku Maloob Zaap is Pemex’s biggest crude producer, where it accounts for more than 40 percent of the Mexican national company’s 1.7 million barrel daily output.
The fire was later reported to have been tamed at around 10.30 WIB or five hours after it was reported. And, not long after, the gas network in the North American country returned to normal. During the blackout process, Pemex stated that it had closed the inter-pipe valve to control gas leaks.
This was also done to assist the work of officers in extinguishing the fire, either through ships that were directed closer to that point.
Quote from CNN, Mexico’s Oil Safety Regulatory Head (ASEA) Angel Carrizales said the incident at the Pemex facility did not result in any oil leaks. However, he did not explain why the fire occurred to the surface of the sea.
Meanwhile, Pemex stated that there were no injuries or fatalities from the incident. Investigations into the cause of the leak that caused the fire will also be investigated in depth.
One source Reuters shows Pemex’s report on the incident, that the events at the facility were not the result of heavy rains and electrical storms. Meanwhile, to control and extinguish the fire, the company uses nitrogen.
For your information, this is not the first major incident for Pemex in the last decade. Then, in 2013 an explosion caused by a buildup of gas at its headquarters in Mexico City killed 37 people.
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