Underwater search launched for missing SOCAR employees at Oil Rocks
By Aynur Karimova
An underwater search was launched for the three missing oil workers on the platform No 501 of the Oil Rocks Oil and Gas Production Division on December 7, Balamirza Alirahimov, the chief engineer of SOCAR’s Azneft Production Association, said at a press conference.
Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR earlier reported that an accident has occurred at Oil Rocks field of Azerbaijan due to the strong storm.
SOCAR said that as a result of the storm, a booth on base #501 got washed out to the sea at approximately 12:30 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours), on December 4. At the time, the booth contained three people - Javad Khudaverdiyev, Bahman Jafarov and Rovshan Mammadov.
“Yesterday, on December 6, the search brought no results because of the turbidity of water,” Alirahimov said. “But today, the weather has relatively stabilized, which allowed us to continue the search.”
Alirahimov also added that unfortunately, the missing oil workers have not yet been found.
“The search will begin in the area of the platform No 501, and then will continue in the area of other platforms,” he said. “In parallel, helicopters of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan continue the search.”
The search for oil workers was held using a helicopter of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, as well as a fire fighting ship of the Caspian Shipping Company, rescue ship and the tug.
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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova
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