"According to our information, 32 workers died, while 42 workers were rescued last night…. The fire on the platform was finally extinguished," said Mirvari Gakhramanly, who heads Azerbaijan's Oil Workers' Rights Protection Committee.
32 Azeri oil workers lost their lives in rig fire. #Guneshli #aztwi pic.twitter.com/8AfHBhs8k2
— Rauf Mardiyev (@RaufMardiyev) 5 декабря 2015
SOCAR, the state-run energy company operating the oil rig, has not provided information on the exact number of the deceased, but said that 26 people were rescued in its latest tweet.
Xilas olunanların sayı 26-ya çatmışdır
— SOCAR (@SOCARofficial) 5 декабря 2015
As many as 84 people could still be on the platform, the news agency quoted one of the workers as saying. This information has not been independently verified.
The rig in the Guneshli oil field caught fire after strong winds damaged a gas pipeline on Friday. The blaze has not been put out yet and the ongoing rescue operation is complicated by harsh weather.
#Azerbaijan: Work is underway on evacuating the staff on the production platform at Guneshli offshore field, where a strong fire broke out.
— Fuad Alakbarov (@DrAlakbarov) 5 декабря 2015
