A British expatriate and five Nigerian oil workers have died, while five others are still missing from the Seplat Energy rig accident involving the Majestic rig at Ogboren near Ovhor oilfield, in Sapele local government, Delta State.
The incident involving the Majestic rig, a newly acquired rig operated by SEPLAT/NNPCL joint venture in the early hours yesterday with 96 crew members capsized, and as of the time of filing this report, six bodies have been recovered including that of a Briton, according to Advocate.ng report.
Top management staff who spoke to our correspondent anonymously said that the company management is working round the clock to find other missing persons.
“As soon as we got the news of the incident, the company activated search and rescues mechanisms, and the efforts yielded great results, as we speak most of the workers are safe and getting medical attention, but sadly, we lost six staff, a Briton included with about six other workers still missing as at 8pm today,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the management of Seplat Energy Plc in a press release signed by the Chief Executive Officer, Roger Brown, said that out of the 96-member crew on the rig, 92 of them are safe, however, tragically one fatality occurred during the incident, while three other rig personnel are still missing.
The four-paragraph release read, “Seplat Energy regrets to announce a serious incident on the Depth wise swamp drilling rig “Majestic” in the early hours of this morning. Seplat as the operator of the SEPLAT/NNPCL joint venture contracted the rig. It was in transit to its planned drilling location at Ovhor in Delta State when it capsized.
“92 of the 96-member crew are accounted for and safe. However, tragically one fatality occurred during the incident, while three other rig personnel are still missing.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the crew member who sadly lost his life and the three crew members who are still missing at the time of this report. Our emergency response and rescue efforts working alongside the rig owner and the authorities have been activated and are onsite. Our utmost priority will continue to be the safety and well-being of all the affected personnel and their families.
“We will provide further details as our understanding of the incident develops. A detailed investigation into the cause of the accident will follow.”
Recall that Seplat Energy has a 45 per cent working interest in OMLs 4, 38, and 41 which are located in Edo (OML 4) and Delta (OMLs 38 and 41) States onshore Nigeria.
Seplat Energy is the operator of the three blocks, which together form one contract area, on behalf of the NPDC/Seplat Joint Venture.
As an operator, Seplat Energy is empowered with running the day-to-day operations activities and can set production and operational improvement goals and lead exploration and appraisal activities, subject to the approval of its partner. Production is predominantly from seven fields, namely Amukpe, Oben, Okporhuru, Ovhor, Orogho, Sapele, and Sapele Shallow, and the partners aim to bring additional fields on-stream in the future.
