Activists and environmental groups on Saturday lashed out at the state-owned oil company in Mexico after a leak in an underwater gas pipeline caused a fireball in the sea that seemed to boil the waters of the Gulf.

Greenpeace Mexico noted that Friday’s accident could have been caused by a failure in an underwater valve, which highlights the dangers of Mexico’s 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, the people in power call themselves ‘climate leaders’ as they open up new oil fields, pipelines and coal-fired power plants – granting new oil licenses to explore future excavation sites.” The young woman 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.

Sinister in the Gulf

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

The leak occurred on Friday afternoon about 150 meters 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.

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