Large waves cause problems for 'ENSCO 8506'
The US Coast Guard is overseeing response efforts, Tuesday, for an offshore drilling rig that began taking on water into a ballast tank after a large wave hit them in heavy seas more than 100 miles south of Galveston, Texas. On Tuesday morning the US Coast Guard received a report that the ‘ENSCO 8506’, an offshore semi-submersible drilling rig, had been damaged causing one of the rig’s column ballast tanks to take on water. The capacity of the ballast pumps on-board are keeping up with the ingress of water in the column ballast tank. The rig is maintaining an even keel and remains in a stable position without resorting to using the emergency pumps, or performing an emergency disconnect from the riser. There are no reports of injuries or pollution. The ‘ENSCO 8506’ was conducting exploration activities for Anadarko at the company’s Deep Nansen prospect at the time and did not have any oil on-board from drilling operations. The drilling rig is operating in an area with a 3,800-foot water depth and was not conducting actual drilling operations when the incident occurred. All rig operations have been suspended and preparations are being made for normal disconnect procedures if necessary to make repairs.