Iranian authorities have brought under control a fire that broke out on a platform in the South Pars gas field, which is the largest offshore natural gas field in the world.
The Pars Oil and Gas Company said the blaze began on Tuesday on a gas platform in Phase 14 of the field and was put out almost at once, according to Iran’s semi-official news agency Fars.
Seventeen workers reach safety after platform fire
Kourosh Dehghan, director general of crisis management in Bushehr Province, told Fars that 17 workers had leapt into the water to save their lives and that rescue efforts were under way. He said details about the scale of the incident and the workers’ condition would follow later.
Bushehr’s crisis management office later said all 17 workers were in good shape after getting into lifeboats and rescue craft. Three heavy rescue vessels were sent to the platform to bring them back.
Possible causes and output of the South Pars field
Officials are weighing a gas leak or an operational mishap as possible causes, Fars reported. The agency noted that the platform accounts for only 14.5 million cubic metres of the field’s daily output, which tops 700 million cubic metres.
Iran shares the reservoir with Qatar, a major gas exporter that calls its portion the North Dome. The reservoir is estimated to hold 1,800 trillion cubic feet (51 trillion cubic metres) of usable gas, enough to meet global demand for 13 years.
