Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. mentioned tools on a rig beneath lease to BP Plc by accident broke free throughout a storm and sank to the underside off the UK coast. Nobody was injured and no crude leaked into the ocean.
The Feb. 1 “tools incident” concerned the Ocean GreatWhite rig about 125 miles (200 kilometers) west of the Shetland Islands, the corporate mentioned in a US submitting on Monday. BP is leasing the vessel by means of a minimum of August. Diamond Offshore describes it on its web site as “one of many world’s largest ultra-deepwater harsh atmosphere semisubmersible” rigs.
BP “is conscious of the incident involving the Ocean GreatWhite drilling rig and we’re offering any crucial assist to rig operator Diamond Offshore Drilling,” Paul Takahashi, a spokesman for the oil firm, mentioned in an e mail. He referred inquiries in regards to the vessel to Diamond Offshore.
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A key gadget on the seafloor sealed off the nicely in order that no oil or pure fuel escaped, Diamond Offshore mentioned. It was the failure of simply such a tool — referred to as a blowout preventer, or BOP — that contributed to the lethal calamity aboard the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon within the US Gulf of Mexico virtually 14 years in the past.
Within the 2010 incident, the BOP didn’t function correctly, permitting explosive fuel to hurry to the floor, killing 11 employees and destroying the rig.
Diamond Offshore didn’t present extra exact particulars in regards to the location of the accident however offshore wells in that area sometimes lay under greater than 3,500 ft of water.
“On the time of the incident, the rig was not finishing up any drilling exercise,” the corporate mentioned, including that it’s investigating the reason for the separation. “No staff had been injured, the rig maintained its structural integrity and the nicely is safe” with the blowout preventer in place.
