Icy Russian waters claim up to 50 lives after drilling rig collapses

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 and sank within 20 minutes. The depth of the water at the site is 3,400 feet,” Russia’s federal water transport agency said.

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Four of the survivors, suffering from hypothermia, were airlifted by helicopter to land and taken to hospital after the disaster struck at 12:45pm local time.

The rest of the crew were missing, 125 miles off the coast of remote Sakhalin island. The water temperature was one degree Celsius, giving survivors around 30 minutes before freezing to death. Three rescue craft, as well as helicopters, were sent to scour the waters for survivors from the rig owned by Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka.

“There is no ecological danger. The vessel was carrying the minimum amount of fuel as it was being tugged by two craft,” said a company spokesman.

The incident was a blow to efforts by Russia, the world’s largest energy producer, to step up offshore oil and gas exploration.

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.

“[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 the night.

Russia’s Federal Investigative Committee, which answers to the president, said it would investigate the accident and would question rescued workers as well as those responsible for organising the towing of the craft.

“The violation of safety rules during the towing of the drilling rig, as well as towing without consideration of the weather conditions … are believed to be the cause of the [disaster],” the committee said in a statement.

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The Neftegaz-55 tugboat had been towing the Kolskaya and took part in the search effort, but pulled out after suffering hull damage from the high waves.

The tug, carrying most of the crew rescued from the rig, had taken on water and was trying to limp to port.

The rig, built in Finland in 1985, had been working on a minor gas production project in the Sea of Okhotsk for a unit of state-controlled gas export monopoly Gazprom, the company said.

Russia’s prize offshore gas and oil fields lie north-east of Sakhalin. Two major offshore projects are already producing oil and gas off the island: Sakhalin-1, operated by Exxonmobil and Sakhalin-2, in which Gazprom has a controlling stake.

Operating conditions in the region, explored by Soviet geologists in the 1960s and 1970s, are among the harshest for Russian energy companies.