Around 30 people were injured after a gas pipeline exploded in the Tabasco state, Mexico town of Cardenas on Dec. 22.

As CNN reports, Tabasco's health secretary said the hospitalized victims of Tuesday's blast suffered second and third degree burns. Images taken at the scene of the explosion showed some of the victims with their skin pealed away and their clothes partially burned off.

Pemex, the Mexican state-owned gas company, has denied that the pipeline exploded. According to Pemex, the fire was controlled and the pipeline was not harmed.

Reuters reports that the explosion allegedly started in a space used to store stolen fuel.

Pemex has a history of fires occurring after their pipelines are illegally tapped. According to the oil company, many people -- from current to former employees, as well as drug cartels and regular business people -- have managed to pilfer fuel over the years.

In November, Pemex claimed to have brought down their annual accident rate by more than 33 percent.

In 2013, about 37 people were killed by an explosion at Pemex's Mexico City headquarters. The year before, 26 people died in a fire at a Pemex facility located in northern Mexico.

Despite the fuel thefts and random explosions that have plagued the oil company over the years, Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya has expressed optimism about the future of Mexican oil. In a 2013 interview in Forbes, Lozoya said he expected that by 2018, Pemex would produce 3 million barrels of oil and natural gas equivalents per day.

As Bloomberg reports, Pemex’s output has fallen for 11 straight consecutive years in a row. In April, production sank to a low of 2.2 million barrels a day.

Pemex is currently $87 billion in debt. Furthermore, Mexico's Finance Ministry has cut spending on exploration and production for Pemex by $4.1 billion.