Azerbaijan quenches rig blaze, averts 'major oil spill' in Caspian

"The fire at all the oil wells is extinguished," Nizamaddin Quliyev, a spokesman of Azerbaijan's state energy firm, SOCAR, told AFP.

"The fire at the gas wells continues to burn, but a major oil spill, (which would have caused) an ecological disaster has been prevented," he said.

A storm on December 4 damaged a gas line on platform number 10 in the deepwater Guneshli section of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli offshore oil field, causing a fire that killed at least seven oil workers with another 23 still missing, presumed dead.

Another 33 people were rescued from the rig, the open water, and from a lifeboat that was suspended 10 metres (35 feet) above the stormy waters.

The Guneshli deposits were discovered in 1981 in the south Caspian Sea, some 90 kilometres (55 miles) east of the Azeri capital Baku.

Platform number 10 is operated solely by SOCAR.

A mainly Muslim country of nine million wedged between Russia and Iran, Azerbaijan is a key partner in projects to deliver Caspian Sea energy reserves to the West through pipelines to Turkey, bypassing Russia.