This cauldron of burning gas on top of the Gulf of Mexico looked like a scene out of Dante’s Inferno. Indeed, one eyewitness said it seemed like “the portals of hell.”
The fire started after an underwater gas pipeline, 12 inches in diameter, ruptured off Campeche on the Yucatan Peninsula. The Pemex pipeline was part of the Ku Maloob Zaap underwater oil field, one of Pemex’s largest.
Video of the fire, which you can see below, soon circulated on social media around the world, with commentators calling it “the eye of fire,” because of the circular shape of the burning area.
The fire started just before dawn, and fire control boats pumped water into it for about five hours before the flames were extinguished. No one was injured.
This fire was the latest in a series of Pemex accidents. Bloomberg reports that Pemex has a debt of $114 billion, more than any other major oil company, and doesn’t have the resources to invest in new extraction technologies. See the video here:
