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Drill Ship Accident off Nigeria Throws 3 Overboard

Published Jan 20, 2011 10:33 AM by The Maritime Executive

LAGOS, Nigeria — An accident on an oil ship operating in a Total field off Nigeria's coast threw three workers overboard and one remained missing on Monday, according to a company report.

The French company Total reported that the accident occurred on Saturday when a crane collapsed on the Jack Ryan drill ship in the Akpo offshore field.

Two of the workers were rescued after being thrown overboard, one remains missing.

Production was temporarily shut down on the Transocean ship, but was restarted Monday. The cause of the accident was unclear.

Total's Akpo field had been producing up to 170,000 barrels per day recently, according to one of the Total officials.

Total is among the major producers in Nigeria, the world's eighth largest oil exporter.

Transocean was also the owner of the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico.