Floatel Superior and Statoil's Njord A platformAll non-essential personnel, some 336 people, onboard the Floatel Superior have been evacuated after the semisubmersible sustained damage on two ballast tanks, Statoil announced on 8 November 2012.
Statoil said that three helicopters shuttled workers between the Floatel Superior and the Njord A FPU platform. From there they were taken to the reception center in Kristiansund.
Some 38 people remained behind in order to navigate the rig toward Kristiansund for repairs.
Floatel International said that the semisubmersible Floatel Superior was on standby mode due to severe weather in the area. It was positioned 200m away from Statoil's Njord A when an anchor came loose from the bolster and damaged two adjacent ballast tanks, the No. 10 and No. 3.
Due to the immediate flooding of the No. 10 tank, the vessel developed a list of approximately 3-4 degrees. Floatel said the list was corrected by counter ballasting tanks on the opposite side. The company said it does not yet know how the anchor came loose.
At the time of the evacuation, Statoil said in a statement on 8 November that there had been no imminent danger after the Floatel Superior had been stabalized. However, visual inspection revealed enough damage to deem an evacuation necessary.
'The margins are small in these types of situations, which is why we always want to evacuate non-essential personnel,' said Bente Aleksandersen, emergency response manager and VP Operations South on the Norwegian shelf in DPN Norway, in a statement on Statoil's website. 'While several people have described the incident and the evacuation as undramatic, we cannot rule out that others may have had a different perception.'
Statoil announced that a planned maintenance shutdown had been underway at Njord A to upgrade the process plant and thus no processing or drilling is currently taking place.
The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority said it has launched an investigation into the incident.
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