Around 300 oil workers from several offshore platforms have been evacuated ahead of an encroaching storm, reports Turan News Agency.
Head of the Committee for Defense of Oil Workers Rights Mirvari Qahramanli says that the evacuations affected locations such as “Oil Rocks” and Oil and Gas Production Department Narimanov.
Qahramanli also said that evacuations were not carried out on platforms “28 May”, “Bahar” and “Guneshli”, which should be cause for alarm.
“The relatives of oil workers on Guneshli are especially concerned, given that in December of 2015, similar weather conditions led to the death of 30 workers”, she commented, adding that reparations of the platform have still not been completed since the last disaster, and thus working conditions at the location remain hazardous.
Meteorologists have predicted strong storm conditions on the Caspian Sea for March 31.
Similar storms in the past two years have caused accidents resulting in the death of more than 45 oil workers, half of whose bodies have never been recovered.
On December 5, 2015, on Oil Production Platform №10 a fire broke out after a gas pipeline was ruptured by the weather conditions. 32 people lost their lives.
On December 15, 2016, storm winds blew down the trestle of Oil Production Platform №3 of the Nariman Narimanov Oil and Gas Production Department. 10 oil workers were on the platform at the moment of the incident.
In March of this year, one oil worker was killed and another severely injured during reparative works on “Bahar Enerji” gas well.
Experts in Azerbaijan have suggested on numerous occasions that negligence and corruption are behind such oft-repeating incidents.
