One dead, more than 30 missing in Azerbaijan oil fire

At least one worker was killed and 30 others were missing on Saturday after an oil platform caught fire during high winds in the Caspian Sea on Friday, the state energy company SOCAR said.

The president of Azerbaijan said 32 workers were rescued and an operation is underway to find those still missing. 

The head of Azerbaijan's Oil Workers' Rights Protection Committee, Mirvari Gakhramanly, told Reuters earlier on Saturday that 32 workers had died and 42 had been rescued overnight.

SOCAR said the fire on a platform in Azerbaijan's Guneshli oil field had started after a gas pipeline on the platform was damaged in heavy wind. It said rescue attempts were being complicated by a severe storm.

One worker called a Reuters correspondent from the platform and said there were 84 people trapped there. The worker did not want to be named. It was not clear whether his statement was now out of date.

Around 60 percent of SOCAR's oil production passes via the platform where the fire broke out, meaning the company's output will be temporarily hit.

The bulk of Azerbaijan's oil is produced elsewhere, however, including on fields operated by British oil major BP.

BP Azerbaijan was not available for comment on Saturday on whether adverse weather in the Caspian or the fire on SOCAR's platform had affected its production.

In a separate incident, SOCAR said on Friday that three workers were missing from another of its offshore oil platforms in the Caspian after an accident during the storm. The workers were still missing as of Saturday.

Fourteen workers were killed in accidents on SOCAR's oil and gas platforms in 2014.

Wire services