A £775million drilling rig bound for waters west of Shetland has sunk in the South Korean shipyard where it is being built.
Ordered by Norway’s Odfjell Drilling and intended for use by BP, Deepsea Aberdeen is currently under construction at a shipyard owned by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering.
A spokesman for Daewoo yesterday described the sinking incident as minor.
The rig had tilted slightly due to a problem with a drainpipe, which was being repaired, he added.
A contractor confirmed the semi-submersible facility sank on Saturday and, though not submerged, was resting on the seabed.
Tor Henning Ramfjord, chief executive of National Oilwell Varco Norway, added that 38 of his firm’s employees had been working on the rig at the time, but all were safe.
A spokesman for Odfjell Drilling also said the rig had sunk after water seeped into its hull. “The hull is now at the bottom of the dock,” he said, adding that all Odfjell Drilling employees were also safe.
The rig is to be used in the Quad 204 deepwater scheme, which involves the redevelopment of the BP-operated Schiehallion and Loyal fields in the UK North Sea. BP and its partners in the project about 110 miles west of the Shetland are targeting an estimated 450million barrels of oil.
Meanwhile, Norway’s Statoil said about 85 workers were evacuated from a North Sea platform after a hydrocarbon leak on Saturday.
The incident led to the Statfjord A installation being de-pressurised and shut down.
Statoil said: “The leakage has been stopped, and the site of the leak has been found and isolated. There were 168 personnel on board the installation. No-one was injured.
“The situation on the platform was quickly normalised and all transferred personnel are being returned to Statfjord A.”
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