Scarabeo 8 Rig in Listing Incident in Barents Sea

Eni Norge reported late Tuesday that the Scarabeo 8 (UDW semisub) drilling rig is now in a stable position after listing on Tuesday afternoon.

The rig – which is owned and managed by Saipem and is currently being used by Italy's Eni for drilling work in the Norwegian zone of the Barents Sea – was reported as having a 5.7-degree list at 3:15 p.m. (Norwegian time) on Tuesday.

Eni said that the incident occurred due to seawater coming into the ballast water tank, but that the ballast water tank has since been emptied and the situation is now under control.

One hundred forty people were on board the rig when the incident occurred, although Eni reported that no-one was injured.

Eni also said that it had reported the incident to Norwegian authorities and that it had employed the company's emergency procedures while also mobilizing available air and ship resources in the area. These resources have since been demobilized.

Scarabeo 8 is currently being used to drill the exploration well 7220/10-1 on the Salina prospect within the PL533 license in the Barents Sea.

A spokesman for Norway's Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) told Rigzone Wednesday that Scarabeo 8 would be allowed to carry on drilling.

"We haven't taken any measures," he said. "The situation was normalized in about half an hour yesterday."

The PSA spokesman added that the operator, Eni, had begun its own investigation and the PSA would be monitoring that closely.