1 dead as storms buffet North Sea rigs

Stormy weather buffeting the North Sea brought havoc to oilfields with one man on Thursday reported killed by a giant wave hitting a rig, and hundreds of workers evacuated after a huge barge broke its moorings.

Oil services provider Aker Solutions said one of its employees, a 53-year-old Norwegian, died on Wednesday when a huge wave hit a rig, operated for Norway's oil giant Statoil by COSL, a China Oilfield Services subsidiary, at the Troll oilfield.

"Aker Solutions can confirm one of its employees succumbed to injuries (sustained) when a huge wave hit the COSL Innovator platform," it said.

Two other people were injured and were being treated ashore, Statoil said in a separate statement.

"The rig is now heading to shore under its own power, while evacuation takes place," it said, adding that the rig's accommodation area had suffered damage.

Stormy weather in the area has seen waves surging as high as 15 metres (50 feet).

Almost 400 oil workers were evacuated on Thursday after a huge barge broke its moorings and began drifting towards the Valhall and Ekofisk oilfields run by British energy giant BP and US multinational ConocoPhillips.

The barge came adrift in British waters and missed the Valhall field by a kilometre, BP Norway spokesman Jan Erik Geirmo told AFP.

Valhall, whose production was temporarily halted, is 330 kilometres (about 200 miles) southwest of the Norwegian port city of Stavanger.

Three tug boats sent out in pursuit of the barge eventually managed to immobilise the barge and were towing it towards the Norwegian coast, its owner said, a precarious operation given the stormy conditions.

BP earlier had evacuated about 150 staff by helicopter to neighbouring oil rigs and a further 71 were being transferred from the Ekofisk field operated by ConocoPhillips, which itself evacuated 145 staff.

BP has a 36-percent stake in Valhall, where production came on stream in 1982, with the remainder held by the Norwegian subsidy of US firm Hess Corporation.

Average production this year stood at 39,000 barrels a day. The field has estimated reserves of 248.1 million barrels of oil and 6.95 billion cubic metres (245 billion cubic feet) of gas.
Source: AFP