Norway: Workers Evacuated from Tilted Rig

Sixty-three workers have been evacuated as the semisubmersible rig, Island Innovator, began taking on water earlier today. One worker has been slightly injured, local news portal Bergens Tidende reports.

Apparently the incident occurred during work on the hull of the rig. The water was entering the pump room of the rig instead of going into the ballast tanks, which caused tilting of the rig for four degrees.

Gisle Johanson, Director of Communications at Odfjell Drilling, said to Bergens Tidende, that the incident is under investigation, and that it is important to find out what went wrong and learn from it, in order to prevent something similar from happening in the future.

The rig, owned by Stavanger-based Marine Accurate Well ASA and operated by Odfjell Drilling, arrived at Bergen Group’s yard at Hanoytangen for some additional work and testing and it was supposed to head to the North Sea for drilling work.

The Island Innovator was built by COSCO shipyard and delivered in September 2012.

The rig operator, Odfjell Drilling, reported that the inlet has been plugged and the rig stabilized by the ballasting system. Further work is done to secure and normalize the situation on the rig.