19 December, 2011
The ICEM extended condolences today to its affiliate, the Russian Oil, Gas and Construction Workers’ Union (ROGWU) following this weekend’s sinking of the Kolskaya oil rig in the Sea of Okhotsk. The Kolskaya, owned by a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned company Zarubezhneft OJSC, sank in stormy waters while being towed from off the Kamchatka Peninsula to Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East.
Fifty-three oil workers went down with the rig, while 14 were rescued by the icebreaker Magadan and the tow ship Neftegaz-55, which were bringing the rig to port. The rig sank in icy waters 1,042 metres deep (3,400 feet) in the Sea of Okhotsk. Only four bodies were recovered and the rig’s four rescue boats were found, but with nobody in them.
The Kolskaya had been drilling for Gazprom subsidiary Gazflot on the West Kamchatsky shelf since September before this tragedy in which it was capsized in a storm and sank in 20 minutes.
The ICEM calls immediate attention to this oil rig disaster as another example of the perilous work that offshore oil workers must endure to meet world energy supplies.