Oil workers missing off stormy Mexico coast

[September 10, 2011]  VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico (AP) -- Mexico's state oil company and a Texas-based company searched for 10 missing oil workers Friday, including four Americans, who evacuated from a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of Tropical Storm Nate.

Petroleos Mexicanos said it had two ships searching in the stormy area where the workers, employed by Houston-based Geokinetics Inc., called for help Thursday afternoon after leaving a vessel known as a liftboat, the Trinity II, on an enclosed life raft.

"We're deeply concerned about the incident in the Gulf of Mexico involving our employees and others who had to abandon a disabled liftboat due to conditions brought about by Tropical Storm Nate," Geokinetics spokeswoman Brenda Taquino said. "The safety and rescue of the employees, everyone on the life raft, is a top priority."

Taquino said the company learned Thursday morning that the 94-foot, 185-ton Trinity II, contracted from Louisiana-based Trinity Liftboat Services LLC, was disabled in the Bay of Campeche because of storm conditions. A liftboat can lower legs to the sea floor and then elevate itself above the water level. This one was being used as a recording vessel and housing for the crew, and it was in waters about 25 feet (8 meters) deep.

On board were four crew members who operate the liftboat as well as three contractors and three employees of Geokinetics, which specializes in seismic studies for the oil and gas industry. They were made up of four Americans, four Mexicans, one from Kazakhstan and a 10th worker of unconfirmed nationally, said an official at the port of Dos Bocas, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to journalists.

He said Pemex and Mexican navy rescue crews were also working along the beaches in nearby Frontera, the closest port to where the men evacuated the liftboat, because high winds and unrelenting rain made it too difficult to venture out to sea.

Randy Reed, president of Trinity Liftboat in New Iberia, Louisiana, was unavailable for comment Friday, a person answering the phone at his office told The Associated Press. But Reed told the Advertiser newspaper in Louisiana that the rescue effort involved boats, helicopters and aircraft conducting a grid search of the area where they went missing off the coast of Mexico.

"We're optimistic. They're good seamen. They're professionals at what they do," Reed said. "The life raft is out there, we just haven't found it yet ... We're all working diligently to locate the raft so we can locate our loved ones."

The Trinity II captain reported they were abandoning the vessel about midday Thursday, and a ship several miles (kilometers) away also reported seeing the crew enter the life raft.

But there has been no communication since. Pemex said its boats initially had difficulty reaching the area about 8 miles (13 kilometers) off shore of the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco because of high winds and waves.

The Pemex communications office said Friday that its boats had reached the area but it couldn't say what weather conditions were like.

The Mexican navy said in a statement that sailors had reached the Trinity II and found no crew. It said it has deployed a plane, three helicopters and four boats to search for them.

Taquino said the life raft was a sealed capsule containing enough food and water to last for several days, but there was no way to communicate with it.

"Visibility is not that great," she said.

Two additional vessels were monitoring the Trinity II because it could not be secured due to high seas, and a helicopter was sent out, Taquino said.

Tropical Storm Nate was drifting slowly west-southwestward over the southern gulf late Friday with maximum sustained winds of near 50 mph (80 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was centered about 205 miles (330 kilometers) east-northeast of Veracruz. Forecasters said it was expected to hit Mexico's gulf coast Sunday possibly as a hurricane.

A tropical storm warning was declared from port cities Tampico to Veracruz. A hurricane watch also was posted for the coast, meaning there was a chance the storm could strengthen into a hurricane.

Pemex said late Friday that it had evacuated 473 workers from platforms off the coasts of the Gulf coast states of Veracruz and Tamaulipas.

Mexico's gulf ports were closed to navigation Friday and preparations were under way in the neighboring gulf state of Veracruz, where civil protection authorities decreed a tropical storm alert for 212 municipalities and were readying shelters.

Tropical Storm Maria, meanwhile, headed toward the Lesser Antilles at the eastern end of the Caribbean late Friday, while rain from what had been Tropical Storm Lee continued inundating a wide portion of Pennsylvania and other northeastern states, leaving at least seven dead.

Maria's maximum sustained winds Friday night were near 45 mph (75 kph), with some slight strengthening possible, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was moving toward the west-northwest near 14 mph (22 kph).

A tropical storm warning was in effect for a host of islands: Antigua, Anguilla, Barbuda, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitts, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, St. Maartin, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Barthelemy, St. Marteen, Martinique, Dominica, and Puerto Rico including Vieques and Culebra.

On its current forecast track, Maria's center would reach the Leeward Islands early Saturday and be near the Virgin Islands by Saturday night, the hurricane center said.

Also in the Atlantic, Hurricane Katia was moving northeast over open water after passing between the U.S. and Bermuda. Despite not hitting land, the hurricane center said large swells generated by the Category 1 storm will continue affecting the U.S. East Coast and Bermuda.

Katia was centered midway between Bermuda and Nova Scotia and was moving northeast near 29 mph (46 kph). It had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph). The long-term forecast indicated it could reach Scotland as a storm on Monday.

[Associated Press; By ANTONIO VILLEGAS]

Associated Press writer Mike Graczyk in Houston, Texas, contributed to this report.

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