MEXICO CITY, April 7 (Reuters) - At least one contractor

was killed after a fire struck an offshore platform operated by

Mexico's national oil company Pemex, the firm said in a

statement on Sunday, adding that two others were in "grave"

condition.

A total of nine workers suffered injuries in the blaze on

Saturday afternoon that struck the company's Akal-B platform,

located in the southern Gulf of Mexico, where most of Pemex oil

output originates.

Five of the nine were Pemex employees while the rest were

contractors from local service providers Diavaz and COTER.

A day earlier, Pemex said only two of its employees had been

injured, and that none of the injures were serious as the fire

had been controlled in 16 minutes.

Pemex infrastructure across Mexico has for years suffered

frequent deadly accidents, which analysts often blame on poor

maintenance and other operational deficiencies.

The Akal-B platform is part of Pemex's aging but still

significant Cantarell complex of shallow water wells. The

complex currently produces some 200,000 barrels per day of crude

oil, but two decades ago was one of the world's top producing

fields with over 2 million bpd of output.

In its statement, Pemex did not detail how oil and gas

production from the complex had been affected. It did note that

the company continued to investigate the cause of the incident

as well as actions needed in order to "reestablish" operations

at its processing center.