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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kormac who wrote (68183)	6/15/2000 12:33:00 AM
From: kormac	Respond to of 95453

OILRIG ADRIFT: Workers evacuated in North Sea storm The oilrig "Bideford Dolphin" broke its anchors and came adrift in a storm off the western coast of Norway Tuesday. 51 platform workers were evacuated by helicopters. The situation is still serious. Tonight 26 workers are still aboard the platform trying to stabilize the giant construction, which started drifting off its position just after 4 pm GMT. The operating company Norsk Hydro, the Rescue Center for southern Norway and the Oil and Gas directorate are maintaning a high alert to follow how the situation develops through the night. The rig broke its position on the Vigdis field west of Flor› in winds between gale force and hurricane. The Rescue Center and Norsk Hydro's alert center in Bergen were immediately manned. In waves of 17.5 meters median height the rig drifted off rapidly, almost 300 meters from its original position. For a moment there was fear that it might collide with other platforms or crude oil pipelines. - It is a dramatic situation when the anchor wire breaks. There are however no risk for loss of people, says Chief of Information at Norsk Hydro Benedikt Henriksen to "Aftenposten". Two rescue helicopters started the evacuation of 51 of a total of 71 people from the platform at 3.50 pm GMT. They were all flown to the Gullfaks A platform. No one were hurt and the evacution took place without problems of any kind. Unclear situation Tuesday night it was still unclear how many anchors the platform had lost. The rig has eight anchors and for a while the experts believed that six anchor chains wires were broken. - The situation is under control. The platform is keeping its present position by the help of its own engine and to anchors. We have so far verified that three anchors are lost. We will be on high alert all night, says Press spokeswoman Eldbj›rg Vaage of the Main Rescue Center at Sola. Three helicopters will be standing by during the night. They will be stationed at the airports of Vigra, lesund and Flesland Bergen and on the Stafjord A platform. According to the Main Rescue Center the wind is expected to diminish some during the night. The fear of collision The biggest fear when situations like this occurs is that the platform will collide with other installations or pipelines. The Oil and Gas directorate is therefore watching the situation closely tonight. The wind direction such as it is tonight makes the authorities think that a collision is not very likely. - The way we see it now there is no danger of collision. And there is not any danger of the rig hitting any pipelines in the area, either, Eldbj›rg Vaage says. This view is agreed upon by Norsk Hydro: - The nearest installation is eight kilometers away. The risk of the rig colliding with anything is nil. But nearby installations have been warned, says Benedikt Henriksen. - N‘rmeste installasjon er †tte kilometer unna. Det er ingen fare for at riggen vil kollidere n†. Men n‘rliggende installasjoner er varslet, sier Benedikt Henriksen. Investigation The Oil and Gas directorate takes the accident very seriously: - This is not supposed to happen. I expect Norsk Hydro as soon as possible to conduct an internal investigation in order to find out how this could happen. Both we and Norsk Hydro itself will be well served by such an investigation, says Information Officer Jan Haugland.