Three bodies have been found inside the wreck of the Prospector 5 drilling rig that sank off Gabon's southern coast at the weekend, the country's navy has said, as search teams continue to look for two workers who remain missing.

The jackup rig, owned and operated by Borr Drilling, went down off the town of Mayumba on Saturday with 115 people on board. A hundred and ten of them were brought back safely to Port-Gentil, where the companies involved say they are receiving accommodation, care and support.

Robots locate the bodies

Gabonese Navy Chief of Staff Charles Hubert Bekale-Meyong announced the discovery on national television, saying it "was made possible thanks to underwater inspections conducted using remotely operated robots". He said the images collected so far do not allow the bodies to be identified, and that teams were preparing to bring them to the surface. Search efforts for the remaining two people, he added, would continue.

An Indian national among those initially unaccounted for had earlier been reported dead, but it is not yet known whether he is among the three found. Reports said the others missing were three Gabonese nationals and one other foreign worker.

  • 115 people were aboard when the rig sank
  • 110 rescued and taken ashore
  • 3 bodies located inside the submerged platform
  • 2 people still missing

What went wrong

Borr Drilling's preliminary account is that the rig suffered a "punch-through", in which one of its legs unexpectedly sank into the seabed during preloading, causing it to lose stability. Gabon's Petroleum Minister Clotaire Kondja has ordered a technical investigation into the circumstances of the accident and who is responsible. President Brice Oligui Nguema visited survivors in hospital this week.

The rig had been contracted by Oslo-listed BW Energy to support work at its offshore Dussafu licence and had not yet started drilling. BW Energy said it had shut down its nearby MaBoMo wellhead platform as a precaution while the rig moved into position, but production has since resumed with no damage to the facility. The company says the planned well workover will now be carried out using a hydraulic workover unit.

Fears of a fuel leak

About 280 cubic metres of marine diesel was on board when the rig went down. Borr, BW Energy and Gabonese authorities say they have launched joint measures to limit environmental damage from an expected leak, with neighbouring operators Perenco and Vaalco helping with the response.

Gabon is one of sub-Saharan Africa's long-established oil producers, and the disaster has renewed questions about safety standards in offshore operations along the Gulf of Guinea coast.

Photos: TRT Afrika; Baird Maritime. Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.