Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 6
Trend:
An employee of Azerbaijan's State Oil Company (SOCAR) was killed Nov. 6 as an offshore unit collapsed, SOCAR said on its website.
Earlier, at 16:00 (UTC/GMT +4) Nov. 6, a 60 meter overpass between the offshore units No.310 and No.312, managed by the N.Narimanov oil and gas production department of Azneft Production Union, collapsed destroying a pipe with a diameter of 250 mm, SOCAR said.
To prevent a larger disaster the oil and gas production department's five employees were dispatched to the unit No.307, where they cut off the gas distribution battery and this prevented the fire threat or oil leakage into the sea.
But when they were returning, the faulty offshore unit on which they were standing collapsed and they fell into the sea.
As a result of operative rescue works, three people out of those who fell into the sea have been rescued.
One person was killed in the accident. Search is underway for one more missing person.
The Garadag-10, PS-158, PSK-51, Agdere-4, PSK-31, Orion-4, Shirvan-2 and Zerdab-3 vessels are involved in the searches.
The search results will be announced.
A special commission was set up to investigate the incident.
Earlier on Oct. 23, structures collapsed at the platform #441 of the same oil and gas production department during repair works there, killing 4 people.
Edited by CN