At least 1 killed, 30 missing after Azeri oil rig fire

At least one oil worker is dead and 30 are missing after a platform in the Caspian Sea caught fire in a storm, the BBC reports.

State oil company Socar told the BBC that 63 workers had been on the Guneshli platform at the time and that 32 had been rescued so far.

The firm said the fire began after a storm on Friday evening damaged a gas line.

The storm has hampered efforts to control the fire and rescue workers.

Azerbaijan’s Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Committee said that about 40 oil workers had tried to board a life raft attached to the platform but that the raft ruptured and a number of them fell into the sea.

Socar has not confirmed this account.

During the same storm, three workers went missing from another offshore oil platform in the Caspian Sea, Socar said.

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS