Two dead in explosion at Mexican offshore oil platform

An explosion and fire has destroyed an offshore gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico, killing two workers and injuring six, with another still missing, officials say.

The state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos said the disaster happened on its Nohoch gas transfer platform.

It said the dead and missing workers were employed by a subcontractor.

It did not specify who the six injured worked for.

The company's statement said seven ships evacuated a total of 321 workers from the platform.

Photos distributed by the company showed several fireboats pumping streams of water onto the still-smoking platform.

Petroleos Mexicanos director Octavio Romero said the platform "was totally destroyed" but several nearby, linked platforms did not catch fire.

There appeared to be little risk of an oil spill, although it was unclear whether the accident might force the company to increase the flaring of gas, a process of burning excess gas that pumps large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Platforms such as the one that burned receive gas from wells and pump it through pipelines to storage tanks or ships.

Because some wells produce gas associated with oil, either oil production would have to be shut down until somewhere else was found to handle the gas, or the gas would have to be flared off.

Romero did not comment on that possibility.