MOSCOW, (Reuters) – A drilling rig with 67 crew on board capsized and sank off Russia’s far eastern island of Sakhalin yesterday while being towed through a winter storm, leaving more than 50 dead or missing in the icy Sea of Okhotsk.
Emergency officials said the crew of an icebreaker and tugboat rescued 14 workers alive from the jack-up rig, the ‘Kolskaya’, which was operated by a Russian offshore exploration firm. They recovered four bodies from the water.
“The Kolskaya keeled to its side … and sank within 20 minutes. The depth of the water at the site is 1,042 metres (3,400 feet),” Russia’s federal water transport agency said on its website.
Four of the survivors, suffering from hypothermia, were airlifted by helicopter to land and taken to hospital after the disaster struck at 12:45 p.m. (0145 GMT).
The rest of the crew were missing, 200 km (125 miles) off the coast of remote Sakhalin island. The water temperature was one degree Celsius (33.8 Fahrenheit), giving survivors around 30 minutes before freezing to death, according to maritime and rescue websites.
Three rescue craft, as well as helicopters, were sent to scour the waters for survivors from the rig owned by Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka (AMNGR), a unit of state-owned Zarubezhneft.
“There is no ecological danger. The vessel was carrying the minimum amount of fuel as it was being tugged by two craft,” said a spokesman for AMNGR.
The incident was a blow to efforts by Russia, the world’s largest energy producer, to step up offshore oil and gas exploration to stave off a long-term decline in onshore production.
The jack-up rig, which has three support legs that can be extended to the ocean floor while its hull floats on the surface, was heading from Kamchatka to Sakhalin when it overturned in stormy conditions with a swell of up to 6 metres.
“(President) Dmitry Medvedev has ordered all necessary assistance be provided to the victims of the drilling platform accident and has ordered a probe into the circumstances of the loss of the platform,” the Kremlin said. The Emergencies Ministry said it would work through Sunday night.
