Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil company, needs better training for offshore workers and improved weather forecasts to prevent accidents such as the one that killed 22 production platform workers last year, according to an independent report.

Panic and disorder led to the death of the workers as they evacuated the Usumacinta platform in the Gulf of Mexico, Mario Molina said today at a press conference in Mexico City. Molina, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, was hired by the company, known as Pemex, to study the Gulf's deadliest offshore oil accident.

The deaths took place after a drilling rig hit a floating oil production platform on Oct. 23, 2007. Pemex ended its contracts with the platform operator Compania Perforadora la Central after the accident and initiated its own investigation.

``The weather bulletins lacked the details necessary to develop the risk model, which was equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane,'' the report said. ``All of the personnel in Bay of Campeche must be trained immediately to survive at sea.''

Eighty-six employees had been working on the platform when waves as high 26 feet (8 meters) and wind gusts of 81 miles (130 kilometers) hit. A Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Sampson starts at 75 miles-per-hour.

``We can't place the blame with anyone in particular,'' Molina said. ``It was a failure of the system, of the way the protocols were written.''

The platform and rig were located 47 miles from Ciudad del Carmen in Mexico's Campeche state.

Multiple Reports

Molina's report was the first of three to be released today. A government report that encompassed investigations by many agencies blamed the company for not training workers and allowing workers without permits to work offshore. The company was fined at least 3 million pesos ($233,918).

``The workers were not properly trained,'' said Jesus Reyes Heroles, chief executive officer of Pemex, at a press conference where the company released its own report conducted by the Battelle Memorial Institute.

Pemex has spent about 2 billion pesos since the accident to buy new escape vessels and life jackets, hire specialized emergency personnel and train its workers, said Carlos Morales, director of exploration and production, at the press conference.

The company is also working to implement a digital system that regulates who works offshore. The Merchant Marine said today that 21 of the workers on the platform were not authorized to work at sea.

``The workers didn't falsify papers because they were evil, they just wanted to work,'' Morales said.

Pemex offshore and Gulf port operations often close during the winter for short periods of time as so-called ``nortes'' storms roll through, bringing intense rain and waves. A week after last year's accident, Pemex idled 600,000 barrels of daily oil production capacity in the Gulf because of a similar weather situation.

Mexico pumps about 80 percent of its oil from the Gulf of Mexico. Pemex produced 2.82 million barrels a day in the first nine months of 2008, a 9.7 percent decline from a year earlier.

Pemex made undisclosed payments to the families of the dead as a settlement. The environment ministry fined the company for the spilling of 21,000 barrels of crude oil equivalent after the accident.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andres R. Martinez in Mexico City at amartinez28@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 31, 2008 22:19 EDT