Environmentalists lash out at Mexico over Gulf fire

Greenpeace Mexico pointed out that Friday’s accident could be caused by a failure in an underwater valve, which highlights the dangers of the Mexican policy of promoting the use of fossil fuels.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has opted for the excavation of more wells and for the acquisition or construction of refineries. It promotes oil as “the best business in the world.”

Through a statement, Greenpeace said that the fire, which took five hours to extinguish “demonstrates the serious risks that the fossil fuel model in Mexico implies both for the environment and for the safety of people.”

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg retweeted video of the fire.

“Meanwhile, those in power call themselves ‘climate leaders’ as they open up new oil fields, pipelines and coal-fired power plants – granting new oil licenses for the exploration of future excavation sites,” the young activist wrote.

“This is the world they are leaving us.”

Pemex said Friday that an underwater gas pipeline ruptured near a drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

The state company sent fire control boats to dump more water on the flames. The company said no one was injured in the incident at the Ku-Maloob-Zaap field.

The leak occurred Friday afternoon about 150 meters (yards) from the drilling rig. The company said it had controlled the gas leak about five hours later.

The extent of the environmental damage caused by the gas leak and the subsequent fireball is unknown.