Tag Archives: fire

Fire kills seven in Kazakh city

NOV. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A fire in a residential building near the Almaty Towers complex killed seven people, mostly Kazakh university students. Investigators said that the likely causes of the fire were either a fault during ongoing construction works or an electrical short-circuit. One welder and six students died in the accident. The Almaty Towers complex is located near the circus in the western part of the city.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Oil rig catches fire in Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea

SEPT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A gas leak caused an explosion at an oil platform in the Guneshli oil field, off the coast of Baku.

Although nobody was injured or killed, the fire at Platform 19, will once again raise concerns about safety at oil platforms in Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea, less than a year after at least 31 rig workers were killed at two other rigs in a storm.

SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company operated the platform.

It said that the fire had burned for a full day before it was brought under control by fire-fighters.

SOCAR said that all 49 workers were evacuated during the fire.

Azerbaijan’s oil industry is still trying to recover its credibility after the rig fire in December, the deadliest since the Piper Alpha fire in the North Sea killed at least 167 people in 1988.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Blast at an oil storage kills seven in Turkmenistan

JUNE 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A blast at an oil storage facility in Turkmenbashi in western Turkmenistan killed seven people, local media reported. A government official later denied the report but it would be unusual for a report of this nature to be erroneous. If it is confirmed, the incident will be a blow to the reputation of Turkmenistan’s main Caspian Sea port.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Oil Tanker catches fire in Azerbaijan-Turkmen Caspian Sea sector

APRIL 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A crew member died after a Russian oil tanker caught fire in the southern section of the Caspian Sea, between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Coastal guards from the three littoral countries joined forces to extinguish the fire and rescue the rest of the crew. The tanker was not carrying oil at the time of the accident. Last December, a fire at offshore oil and gas platforms killed more than 30 Azerbaijani workers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)

Fire destroys Kazakhstan’s Abu Dhabi Plaza

APRIL 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A fire at the Abu Dhabi Plaza, an 88- storey tower being built in central Astana, destroyed five of its floors. No-one was injured. Fires have hit the building several times this year. UAE investors are funding the $1.6b tower which was expected to be finished this year and will be the tallest in Central Asia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)

Short-circuit triggers Tbilisi cathedral fire

MARCH 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A short-circuit appears to have triggered a large fire at the Sameba cathedral in Georgia’s capital. The fire spread across 1,200 square metres and it took several hours for the Tbilisi fire department to extinguish it. The Sameba cathedral is the world’s third-tallest Eastern Orthodox church. No-one was reported as injured.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

Azerbaijan finds two bodies in the Caspian Sea

JAN. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s emergency ministry confirmed that it had recovered two bodies from the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea thought to be those of workers washed overboard during a storm and fire on an oil rig in December. 33 workers died in the fire, the worst offshore oil rig platform disaster since the North Sea Piper Alpha fire in 1988.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Azerbaijan extinguishes Caspian Sea fire

DEC. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan said they had finally extinguished the fire at Platform No. 10 of the Guneshli shallow water oil rig off the coast of Baku, nearly two weeks after a storm smashed into it causing an explosion in a gas pipe.

Emergency crews also said they had received permission to search for the bodies of 26 missing oil workers from other littoral states bordering the Caspian Sea.

Three workers from the Oil Rocks platform and 23 workers from the Guneshli platform are still listed as missing.

Rescue teams have already found the bodies of seven workers killed in the fire on Dec. 4.

A final death toll of 33 would make it the worst offshore oil platform accident since the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988 when 167 people were killed.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

8 dead, 26 missing after storm hits Azerbaijani Caspian rigs

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least eight rig workers died when a storm smashed into an oil and gas platform in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea and triggered a gas explosion.

Another 23 people are still missing from Platform No. 10 of the shallow- water Guneshli field, operated by Azerbaijan’s state-owned SOCAR. Three others are also missing from another platform in the Oil Rocks field after being swept overboard.

Rescue workers said there was little chance of finding any survivors. This means that the final death toll will probably hit 34 — the worst dis- aster in the history of Caspian Sea oil and gas production and the deadliest offshore platform accident since 167 people died in the Piper Alpha acci- dent in the North Sea in 1988.

At a press conference in Baku on Wednesday a downcast Khalig Mamedov, SOCAR vice-president , said: “Despite all the efforts, regrettably, no-one has been found. This is the biggest tragedy in SOCAR’s history.”

Media reported that most of the oil workers who died on Platform No.10 were killed in a botched attempt to abandon the platform in one of the lifeboats. Two dozen workers were successfully rescued from the plat- form, though.

As of Thursday, the blaze on Platform No. 10 was still burning.

The accident stunned people in Azerbaijan. Football matches across the country held a minute’s silence. Along the seafront in Baku people silently laid down bunches of roses. Others sobbed, looking out to sea.

The gas explosion at Platform No. 10 cut production at all 28 wells, 24 oil wells and four gas wells, of the shallow-water Guneshli field. Daily output at Guneshli was around 6,500 barrels/day of oil and 400m cubic metres of natural gas per year, Reuters reported.

Importantly for Azerbaijan’s overall oil production, BP said that output at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field complex that it manages was untouched by the accident.

Azerbaijan has been struggling to maintain oil output this year. This accident will dent both its safety record and oil production levels.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Fire breaks out on Azerbaijani oil rig

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least one person has died and another 29 people are missing after an oil platform in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea caught fire.The platform is part of the Gunehsli field which is operated by BP.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)