Mexico's state-owned oil company said Friday (US time) it suffered a rupture in an undersea gas pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico, sending flames boiling to the surface in the Gulf waters.

Petroleos Mexicanos said it had dispatched fire control boats to pump more water over the flames. Pemex, as the company is known, said nobody was injured in the incident in the offshore Ku-Maloob-Zaap field.

The leak near dawn Friday occurred about 137 metres from a drilling platform. The company said it had brought the gas leak under control about five hours later.

But the accident gave rise to the strange sight of roiling balls of flame boiling up from below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.