West Mira rig returning to work in April after dropping X-mas tree on seabed

Following an equipment failure on the Seadrill-operated West Mira rig, while it was working for Wintershall Dea in Norway, the rig is expected to return to work by mid-April.

At the time of the incident, the West Mira rig was working for Wintershall Dea on the Nova field in the North Sea.

As reported earlier this week, the incident happened during a lifting operation on the rig.

While lowering a christmas tree from the West Mira, the winch wire snapped when the tree was five metres below the sea surface.

As a result, the christmas tree sunk to the seafloor 368 metres below water level.

As detailed by Northern Ocean, the company which owns the West Mira rig managed by Seadrill, in an update on Friday, during the process of lowering production equipment to the well location in the Nova field, the rig experienced equipment failure resulting in the production equipment descending to the seabed.

Drilling contractor Northern Ocean is a spinoff of Northern Drilling.

Northern Ocean said that the manager, Seadrill Europe Management, and the client, Wintershall Dea Norge, are conducting investigations into the incident and have agreed on a plan to secure the production equipment.

Based on current plans to inspect the impacted equipment and perform between well maintenance, Northern Ocean is forecasting that the West Mira will return to work by mid-April.

This is subject to weather conditions and other factors which may arise.

Both the manager and client remain in close communication with the Norwegian offshore safety regulator, the Petroleum Safety Authority.