The accident came less than a month after a rig owned by BP exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, triggering one of the world’s worst-ever oil spills.
Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said there was no gas escaping at the Aban Pearl rig site after the platform disappeared beneath the waves near the northeast coast of the OPEC nation, close to the Trinidad and Tobago islands.
“At 2:20 a.m. (6:50 GMT) the rig sunk completely. I flew over it this morning and there is nothing to see,” Ramirez told Reuters.
State oil company PDVSA said the Dragon 6 oil field where the rig was working was successfully sealed after the accident. Venezuela, one of the world’s leading oil exporters, has suffered a series of fires and maintenance problems at its network of refineries in recent years.
News of the accident at the rig — owned by Petromarine Energy Services Ltd, a Singapore-based company that is linked to India’s Aban Offshore — broke from President Hugo Chavez’s Twitter account @chavezcandanga.
He said all the workers had been rescued at the exploration site, which is run by state oil firm PDVSA. “They were evacuated and at the moment two Navy patrols are moving to the area,” said the Tweet at 3:11 a.m. local time (0741 GMT).
Venezuela sits on some of the world’s largest offshore natural gas reserves but fears of rule changes and pricing issues mean state-oil company PDVSA has struggled to attract extraction investment from foreign companies with the right experience. It is not yet producing offshore gas. Ramirez said the rig, which was built in 1977, keeled over in the night before finally sinking at about 2 a.m. The region is known for strong waves, a state television reporter said.
“The safety valves activated along with an additional security mechanism, which allows us to affirm that we have stabilized the well and there is no risk of any kind of gas leak,” Ramirez said.
The minister said the accident appeared caused by a sudden surge of water entering one of the submarine rafts that the platform’s legs float on, and a submersible robot was being used to probe further.
He said the rig owner would likely try to refloat the Aban Pearl, and that two more exploration rigs were traveling to Venezuela from India.
