A fire on the surface
of the Gulf of Mexico was reported on Friday. The blaze was extinguished
following a five-hour operation, Mexican-state-owned petroleum company
Petróleos Mexicanos said.

The cause of the fire
is said to be a gas leak from an underwater pipeline that reportedly sparked a
blaze on the ocean surface west of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday. 

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Videos of the blaze shared on social media showed orange flames jumping out of water. Many netizens said it resembled molten lava and dubbed it an “eye of fire.”

Petróleos Mexicanos, also known as Pemex, confirmed that the gas leak was found in the 12-inch submarine pipeline that connects to a platform at Pemex’s flagship Ku Maloob Zaap oil field.

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According to the videos, several fire-fighting ships were available on the spots carrying out operations.

“These are the risks we face on a daily basis and which call for a change in the energy model, as we have demanded,” Greenpeace Mexico’s Gustavo Ampugnan said in a statement.

The footage exhibiting the fire, which appears to boil the ocean’s surface, went viral on 2 July before the fire was extinguished roughly 150 yards from a drilling platform in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, the company reported.

So far, no casualties or injuries have been reported in the incident. The company also informed that the production of the project underway was not affected due to the leak.