Mexican state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) expects to resume by Aug. 30 all oil production shut down by a deadly fire on an offshore platform, the firm's chief executive said on Tuesday.
Five workers were killed, two are missing and six injured in a fire on Sunday on the offshore platform that is part of Pemex's most productive oil field Ku-Maloob-Zaap.
The accident in the southern Gulf of Mexico knocked 125 wells offline, totaling 421,000 barrels per day (bpd) of lost output, or about 25% of Mexico's total production.
So far 35 wells, which produce 71,000 bpd, have been brought back online, Chief Executive Octavio Romero said in a video posted on YouTube.
"We can report that 35 wells that produce 71,000 barrels per day have been recovered and that we will reestablish 110,000 additional barrels (per day) by opening another 29 wells in the next 36 hours," said Romero.
"By next Monday (Aug. 30) we expect to reestablish all of the affected production," he said.
Ratings agency Fitch said in a statement that the deadly accident "may slow" Pemex's production growth rate.
(Reporting by Anthony Esposito and Noe Torres; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Christian Schmollinger)
