Hundreds evacuated from stricken Norway oil rig

Norway's state-owned energy giant Statoil on Wednesday evacuated 326 non-essential staff from a North Sea platform off the coast of Norway after it began listing. "Around 330 people were evacuated and we're halting the evacuation at this stage," said Einar Knudsen, a spokesman for the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Southern Norway said. The 48 people who remained on the rig were tasked with emergency duties, Statoil said. The Floatel Superior, effectively a floating hotel for staff working on the neighbouring Njord A production platform, was evacuated after the rig had tilted between three and four degrees due to a leak in one of the ballast tanks. It was "being prepared for removal out of the safety zone around Njord A," after the evacuation had been completed, the group said. The accommodation rig is operated by a separate company, Floatel International. The rupture appeared to have been caused by a collision with an anchor. The Njord A itself, which lies about 50 nautical miles from the coast, is currently closed for maintenance, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. The rig was stabilised an hour later after other ballast tanks were partially flooded to balance it, but as a safety precaution all non-essential personnel, meaning the vast majority of the 374 people on board, were evacuated. The weather conditions were challenging, with waves reaching up to 12 metres (40 feet), but the evacuation went ahead even though the platform had been stabilised. "We normally have two layers of protection against leaks, and since there remained only one, we decided to bring non-essential personnel to safety," group spokesman Ola Anders Skauby told AFP. "We take the situation seriously," he said, adding that it was normal to prepare for a worst case scenario. Six helicopters were deployed to the area, and some of them remain stationed in a nearby town if further evacuations were to be needed, according to the rescue centre. Employees were first airlifted from the Floatel Superior to Njord A, a one-minute flight, before being taken to a welcome centre in the town of Kristiansund, Knudsen said. Norwegian authorities described the incident as "very serious" and said an enquiry would be launched. Petroleumtilsynet, the government body charged with overseeing security in the oil and gas sector, said it had launched an investigation. "The work of the investigation team began immediately after the emergency response centre had been demobilised. It is not possible to estimate when the... report will be available," it said in a statement. Norway is the seventh largest oil exporter and the second largest exporter of natural gas, according to the International Energy Agency.