Six more bodies were found thatwere declared missing after the rig fire atAzeri state-owned energy company Socar's rig fire in Caspian Sea,Azeri media reported Monday.
Rescue operations have been ongoinginSocar’s Gunashli offshore field since last Friday whenextremehigh windsdamaged anunderwater gas pipeline which led to the fire at the northern part of the tenthoil platform.
While 33 people have been rescued so far, "Dead bodies of sixmissingpeople have been recovered as a result of the search operation carried out by Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations," the country's Trend news agency reported Monday.
"The bodies were found by the helicopters of the Ministry of Emergency Situations 65-70 kilometers from the platform of the Gunashli field at9:20 a.m. GMT," Trend added.
This increased the total death toll to seven, while23 people are still listed as missing.
Anvar Aliyev, one of the oil workers rescued from the platform, described the events following theplatform fire.
"I was in a boat. At the moment when strong waves smashed our boat, all the oil workers inside it fell into the water.I grabbed a piece of the boat. The waves carried my friends away in the open sea,"he said, according to Trend.
Balamirza Alirahimov, the head engineer ofthe Azneft Production Union -- a sub division of SOCAR -- describedAzer News how the fire on the platform started, and the difficulties in extinguishing it.
"The wells caught fire because it wasn’t possible to quickly extinguish the firedue to the windy weather on the day the explosion occurred,"he said.
According to Azer News, he described the ongoing work on Tuesday to keep the fire under control, and said,"It was possible to install water pipeline holders at the field to deliver water to the scene under high pressure.
Works will be completed by night to connect the pipelineto the platform’s infrastructure.This will allow delivering up to two thousandcubic meters of water for extinguishing the fire at the platform" he described, according to Azer News.
Alirahimov said the daily production ofthe platform was 900 tons of oiland 1.8 million cubic meters of gas, according to Trend news agency.
Salim Muslumov, Azerbaijan's Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Population, said insurance payments to the victims' families could reach approximately 140,000 manats ($133,000 U.S. dollars).
(Anadolu Agency)
