Giant oil rig left drifting as tow parts in rough seas

On August 14, the obsolete oil rig Pentagon 5000, being towed for scrapping in India, was abandoned by its tug, the MV Indus – believed to be because the tow had parted in the rough seas on that day. And, with the tug only having a basic seagoing crew, it would be a near-impossible task to re-attach the tow line. As the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) said in one of its reports: “Low manning, with so-called operational crews, makes it extremely difficult to fit an emergency towing connection without a pre-arranged system, in particular if auxiliary power on the vessel in distress is not available.” Meanwhile, the 1 368- gross tonnage tug MV Indus, owned by the Indus Shipping & Trading Corporation of Panama, had just run for it. And, on August 19, she was reported by marinetraffic. com to be sailing north to Maputo where her estimated time of arrival (ETA) was logged as August 20. And this vessel, a salvage specialist told FTW, was “at 38 years old not a young tug and a bit on the light side for the job”. He suggested that it was also likely she was “a bit underpowered as well”. So, until the middle of last week this oil rig, which had recently been towed out of the Port of Ngqura after a refuelling stop for her tug, had been left drifting off the SA coast. And here, the big worry for the SA Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa), according to Peter Newton of Seaboard, was the likelihood that she wasn’t insured. Which he added, if she ran ashore, would mean SA would be left with the difficult and expensive task of removing her. By last Thursday (August 20) the rig was reported to be offshore of Mossel Bay – situated exactly half way between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth (both 400 km away). And this was where the Cape Townbased salvage operation, Smit Amandla – contracted by Samsa to tow the rig to Algoa Bay – had been making attempts to board and connect a tow line to its SA-flagged, 2 918-gross tonnage tug, named, like the company, Smit Amandla. However, the first attempt by the salvage team to board the rig early on Thursday was thwarted by heavy fog, with the helicopter having to return them to Mossel Bay. But they managed to get on board later. They then had a couple of failed attempts to connect the tow in the heavy weather. However, on FTW’s last contact with Smit Amandla on Sunday evening, executive Claire Gomes told us that the tow had been successfully connected on Saturday. “They are currently 34 nautical miles off the coast, still heading north, with an ETA in Algoa Bay of Tuesday,” she added. But the rig didn’t have an anchor rigged, and as Samsa had not indicated to the salvors that another tug had been contracted to take over the tow to the scrapyard, Gomes said that it was likely the rig would have to be towed into the Port of Ngqura. She has also assured us that she will keep us updated on the issue, so we can keep you informed through FTW Online. CAPTION Oil rig cut adrift. In a potentially costly event for SA, a giant oil rig has just been left drifting, unmanned and all on its own, off the coast.