Four oil rig workers were killed and 16 injured when a fire broke out on an oil production platform in the Gulf of Mexico early on Wednesday morning, Mexico’s state-run petro-giant Pemex has said.

The explosion started with a fire in the dewatering and pumping area of the Abkatun A-Permanent platform, Pemex said, though it was not yet clear what had caused it.

At least 300 workers were evacuated. The company confirmed the death of the four workers in a tweet.

Pemex said it had eight firefighting boats battling the flames. Though

Incendio en la plataforma Abkatun Alfa en Campeche, desalojan a 300 trabajadores http://t.co/sGqGdDhT1y | #Abkatum pic.twitter.com/fUvyRJDfJx — Grupo Presente (@DiarioPresente_) April 1, 2015

A video showed the rig burning furiously.

7 lesionados sería el saldo del incendio en la plataforma Abkatun Alfa de Campeche confirma Pemex en comunicado pic.twitter.com/52EMOQpsud — Cinco Radio (@JavierLopezDiaz) April 1, 2015

The Abkatun standing platform is used to separate gas from crude oil and is not a drilling rig, so there is no open well or danger of a major ongoing oil leak, a Pemex spokeswoman told the Guardian. She also said there was no oil in the water at the blast site, but all of the company’s oil response teams had been dispatched.

The UK government recently signed a trade deal with Mexico, which included a $1bn (£660m) funding package for Pemex.

The explosion on Wednesday brings the total number of those killed in fires at Pemex facilities to 64 in less than three years. In 2013, at least 37 people were killed by a gas explosion at the Pemex headquarters in Mexico City. Another 26 were killed at a gas plant in 2012.

Charlie Kronick, oil analyst for Greenpeace UK, said: “This tragic accident ... once again demonstrates the true cost of our addiction to oil, whether in the Gulf of Mexico, Nigeria or the Arctic. The sooner we end our dependence on dirty and dangerous fuels like oil and shift to clean energy, the better.”