Pemex, created as a state-owned company in 1938, has nearly 150,000 employees and in 2011 produced about 2.5m barrels of crude oil a day, according to its website, with $111bn in sales.
The explosion occurred at about 3.45pm local time, just as the administrative shift was about to end. It hit the basement and first two floors, which rescuers said all collapsed on to each other.
The cause of the basement explosion in an administrative building next to the 51-floor Pemex tower in Mexico City remained a mystery early on Friday, with the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto, urging people not to speculate.
Theories ranged from an electrical fire to an air conditioning problem to a possible attack
Some 46 people remained hospitalised after the Thursday afternoon blast, some gravely injured and others with cuts, fractures and burns. Authorities said the dead were 17 women and 8 men.
More than 500 firefighters, soldiers and rescue workers dug through chunks of concrete with dogs, trucks and a Pemex crane.
The interior minister, Miguel Osorio Chong, said it was uncertain if any of the roughly 10,000 people who work in the five-building headquarters were still trapped, but that the search would continue.
No comments:
Post a Comment