An enormous blast that killed 30 workers at a pipeline facility in northern Mexico was a big setback for the state-owned oil company, which up to this year had been reporting strides in its safety record at once accident-prone plants.
Petroleos Mexicanos and prosecutors were still combing the burned-out rubble and twisted wreckage on Thursday at the pipeline metering centre near Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas. But it was already clear Tuesday’s blast and fire marked a serious reversal in what Pemex has said was a declining accident rate.
The death of 30 workers in one accident was the largest-single toll in at least a decade for the company.
Only about one-sixth of those killed and half the 46 injured were Pemex employees. The rest worked for a half-dozen private companies doing operational and maintenance work at the station, which is next door to a larger and more flammable natural gas-processing plant.
Some analysts pointed to Pemex’s huge reliance on subcontractors as a possible contributing factor to the disaster, while others defended the outsourcing.
Pemex figures say contractors are slightly less prone to be involved in accidents than the company’s own staff.