A contract has been signed to transport a 17,000-tonne oil rig that ran aground on Lewis in stormy weather to Turkey.
A contract has been signed to transport a 17,000-tonne oil rig that ran aground on Lewis in stormy weather to Turkey. The Transocean Winner landed at Dalmore Bay on Lewis in early August after detaching from its tug en route from Norway to Malta. It was refloated during high tide after three weeks and is now stationed with eight anchors in Broad Bay on the island. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said a contract had been signed with Norwegian company Offshore Heavy Transport (OHT) to transport the rig as dry cargo. It is expected that the rig will be floated on to the semi-submersible heavy lift vessel OHT Hawk which is scheduled to arrive in Broad Bay in late September. Hugh Shaw, the secretary of state's representative for maritime salvage and intervention, said: "There will be many technical challenges surrounding the operations, however I am satisfied that this is the safest option and it fully meets the requirements to minimise any future risk to safety or damage to the environment." The rig's grounding sparked pollution fears owing to the 280 tonnes of diesel on board. Investigations found two of its four fuel tanks were damaged in the incident which resulted in the loss of 53,000 litres of fuel, most of which is thought to have evaporated with no damage to the Dozens of pieces of debris, weighing up to 200lbs, have also been found at the grounding site at Dalmore, with divers recovering about 40 pieces so far. MCA said a temporary exclusion zone of 1000m in Broad Bay would remain in place to minimise any risk to safety for other boats as well as divers and vessels helping with the salvage operation. A temporary exclusion zone of 750m also remains at Dalmore Bay while the salvage of debris continues.
