Ocean Ranger was designed and owned by Ocean Drilling and Exploration Company, Inc. (ODECO) of New Orleans. The vessel was a self-propelled large semi-submersible design with a drilling facility and living quarters. It was capable of operation beneath 1,500 feet (460m) of ocean water and could drill to a maximum depth of 25,000 feet (7,600m). It was described by ODECO as the world's largest semi-submersible oil rig to date.[1]
Constructed for ODECO in 1976 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Hiroshima, Japan, Ocean Ranger was 396 feet (121m) long, 262 feet (80m) wide, and 337 feet (103m) high. It had twelve 45,000-pound (20,000kg) anchors.[2] The weight was 25,000 tons. It was floating on two 400-foot (120m) long pontoons that rested 79 feet (24m) below the surface.[3]
The vessel was approved for 'unrestricted ocean operations' and designed to withstand extremely harsh conditions at sea, including 100-knot (190km/h) winds and 110-foot (34m) waves. Prior to moving to the Grand Banks area in November 1980, it had operated off the coasts of Alaska, New Jersey and Ireland.
Sinking
On 26 November 1981, Ocean Ranger commenced drilling well J-34, its third well in the Hibernia Oil Field. Ocean Ranger was still working on this well in February 1982 when the incident occurred. Two other semi-submersible platforms were also drilling nearby: Sedco 706, 8.5 miles (13.7km) NNE, and ZapataUgland, 19.2 miles (30.9km) N of Ocean Ranger. On 14 February 1982, the platforms received reports of an approaching storm linked to a major Atlantic cyclone from NORDCO Ltd, the company responsible for issuing offshore weather forecasts. The usual method of preparing for bad weather involved hanging-off the drill pipe at the sub-sea wellhead and disconnecting the riser from the sub-sea blowout preventer. Due to surface difficulties and the speed at which the storm developed, the crew of Ocean Ranger was forced to shear the drill pipe after hanging-off, after which they disconnected the riser in the early evening.[4]
At about 19:00 local time, the nearby Sedco 706 experienced a large rogue wave which damaged some items on deck and caused the loss of a life raft. Soon after, radio transmissions were heard from Ocean Ranger, describing a broken portlight (a porthole window) and water in the ballast control room, with discussions on how best to repair the damage. Ocean Ranger reported experiencing storm seas of 55 feet (17m), with the odd wave up to 65 feet (20m), thus leaving the unprotected portlight at 28 feet (8.5m) above the water line vulnerable to wave damage. Some time after 21:00, radio conversations originating on Ocean Ranger were heard on Sedco 706 and Zapata Ugland, noting that valves on Ocean Ranger's ballast control panel appeared to be opening and closing of their own accord. The radio conversations also discussed the 100-knot (190km/h) winds and waves up to 65 feet (20m) high. Through the remainder of the evening, routine radio traffic passed between Ocean Ranger, its neighboring rigs and their individual support boats. Nothing out of the ordinary was noted.[5]
At 00:52 local time, on 15 February, a mayday call was sent out from Ocean Ranger, noting a severe list to the port side of the rig and requesting immediate assistance. This was the first communication from Ocean Ranger identifying a major problem. The standby vessel, the M/V Seaforth Highlander, was requested to come in close as countermeasures against the 10–15-degree list were proving ineffective. The onshore MOCAN supervisor was notified of the situation, and the Canadian Forces and Mobil-operated helicopters were alerted just after 01:00 local time. The M/V Boltentor and the M/V Nordertor, the standby boats of Sedco 706 and Zapata Ugland respectively, were also dispatched to Ocean Ranger to provide assistance. At 01:30 local time, Ocean Ranger transmitted its last message: "There will be no further radio communications from Ocean Ranger. We are going to lifeboat stations." Shortly thereafter, in the middle of the night and in the midst of severe winter weather, the crew abandoned the platform. The platform remained afloat for another 90 minutes, sinking between 03:07 and 03:13 local time.[6]
All of Ocean Ranger sank beneath the Atlantic: by the next morning all that remained was a few buoys. Her entire complement of 84 workers – 46 Mobil employees and 38 contractors from various service companies – were killed.[7] While the rig was provided with an Emergency Procedures Manual which detailed evacuation procedures, it is unclear how effectively the platform evacuation was carried out. There is evidence that at least one lifeboat was successfully launched with up to 36 crew inside, and witnesses on the M/V Seaforth Highlander reported seeing at least 20 crew members in the water at the same time, indicating that at least 56 crew successfully evacuated the rig.[citation needed] The United States Coast Guard report speculated that 'these men either chose to enter the water directly or were thrown into the water as a result of unsuccessful lifesaving equipment launching'. Rescue attempts by the standby vessels were hampered by the adverse weather conditions and the conclusion that the standby boats were neither equipped nor configured to rescue casualties from a cold sea. The lifeboat capsized during an attempt to tether it to the Seaforth Highlander, throwing the men on board into the water, and an emergency raft launched as a last resort missed the men. As a result of the severe weather, the first helicopter did not arrive on scene until 02:30 local time, by which time most if not all of Ocean Ranger's crew had succumbed to hypothermia and drowned. Over the next week, 22 bodies were recovered from the North Atlantic. Autopsies indicated that those men had died as a result of drowning while in a hypothermic state.[citation needed]
In related activity the following day, the Soviet container shipMekhanik Tarasov was struck by the same weather conditions as Ocean Ranger, approximately 65 miles (105km) to the east. The battered Soviet freighter listed dramatically for hours before sinking with the loss of 32 of 37 crew.[7][8][9]
Causes and effects
Ocean Ranger's vulnerability to a rogue wave illustrated. 1 – For comparison, the Draupner wave 59 ft/18 m 2 – 28 ft/8.5 m 3 – Location of the ballast control room
The remains of the platform were found by sonar search over the following weeks, resting in an inverted position approximately 485 feet (148m) south-east of the wellhead, surrounded by major items of debris such as the derrick. The platform had capsized bow-first, turning over and striking the sea floor with the forward ends of the platform's pontoons. The United States Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation report on the disaster summarised the chain of events as follows:[10]
A large wave appeared to cause a broken portlight;
The broken portlight allowed the ingress of sea water into the ballast control room;
The ballast control panel malfunctioned or appeared to malfunction to the crew;
As a result of this malfunction or perceived malfunction, several valves in the platform's ballast control system opened due to a short circuit, or were manually opened by the crew;
Ocean Ranger assumed a forward list;
As a result of the forward list, boarding seas began flooding the forward chain lockers located in the forward corner support columns;
The forward list worsened;
The pumping of the forward tanks was not possible using the usual ballast control method as the magnitude of the forward list created a vertical distance between the forward tanks and the ballast pumps located astern that exceeded the suction available on the ballast system's pumps;
Detailed instructions and personnel trained in the use of the ballast control panel were not available;
At some point, the crew blindly attempted to manually operate the ballast control panel using brass control rods;
At some point, the manually operated sea valves in both pontoons were closed;
Progressive flooding of the chain lockers and subsequent flooding of the upper deck resulted in a loss of buoyancy great enough to cause the platform to capsize.
A Canadian Royal Commission spent two years looking into the disaster. The joint Federal-Provincial Royal Commission on the Ocean Ranger Marine Disaster[11] found that the crew were not trained, the safety equipment was inadequate, there were no safety protocols for the supply ship, and that the platform itself had a number of flaws. The Royal Commission concluded that Ocean Ranger had design and construction flaws, particularly in the ballast control room, and that the crew lacked proper safety training, survival suits and equipment. The Royal Commission also concluded that inspection and regulation by United States and Canadian government agencies was ineffective. In addition to key recommendations for Canada's offshore oil and gas industry, the commission recommended that the federal government invest annually in research and development for search and rescue technologies, such as improving the design of lifesaving equipment—a commitment that has been met in every fiscal year since 1982.
In August 1983, the wreck of Ocean Ranger was refloated and sunk in deeper waters by the Dutch firm Wijsmuller Salvage.[12] Since its sinking the previous year, concerns over the wreck's position had been made by the federal government. As the wreck of Ocean Ranger was situated at an approximate 30 metres below the water, the wreck posed a danger to shipping. The operation saw Ocean Ranger towed upside down with her two pontoons breaking the surface.[13]
Operations had commenced earlier in June. However progress was halted when two salvage divers were killed on the wreck by an underwater explosion on 20 June. A stop-work order on refloating the wreck was declared and an investigation into the incident followed. However, exploratory diving was allowed to continue. A second incident on 26 June saw a third diver killed, believed to have been hit by a dropped object as he attempted to return to the surface.[14][15][16][17]
Lawsuits arising from the sinking were settled out of court with a package cumulatively valued at $20 million.[18]
A permanent monument to those who died was created on the grounds of the Confederation Building, the seat of the provincial government of Newfoundland.[18]
Canadian playwright Joan MacLeod's first play Jewel (1987) is about the widow of one of the men who drowned in the disaster. It premiered at the Tarragon in 1987 (dir. Andy McKim), and was subsequently produced for radio in English, French, German, Danish, and Swedish.[19]
A documentary film, The Ocean Ranger Disaster (2002), was released only in Canada.[20] In fiction, Canadian author Lisa Moore's novel, February (2009), depicts the life of a woman whose husband died aboard the oil rig.[21] Canadian folk singer-songwriter Ron Hynes wrote a song called "Atlantic Blue" (1988) as a tribute to the crew of Ocean Ranger.[22]
In 2009, a non-fiction book, Rig: An Oral History of the Ocean Ranger Disaster, written by Mike Heffernan, was published by Breakwater Books.
In January 2012, a non-fiction book, The Ocean Ranger: Remaking the Promise of Oil, was published in Canada by Fernwood Publishing. The book's author, Susan Dodd, lost her older brother Jim with the sinking of the Ocean Ranger and watched, for years, as her parents pursued legal struggles with the oil companies.[23]
An oil platform is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms will also have facilities to accommodate the workers, although it is also common to have a separate accommodation platform linked by bridge to the production platform. Most commonly, oil platforms engage in activities on the continental shelf, though they can also be used in lakes, inshore waters, and inland seas. Depending on the circumstances, the platform may be fixed to the ocean floor, consist of an artificial island, or float. In some arrangements the main facility may have storage facilities for the processed oil. Remote subsea wells may also be connected to a platform by flow lines and by umbilical connections. These sub-sea facilities may include one or more subsea wells or manifold centres for multiple wells.
A semi-submersible platform is a specialised marine vessel used in offshore roles including as offshore drilling rigs, safety vessels, oil production platforms, and heavy lift cranes. They have good ship stability and seakeeping, better than drillships.
Alexander L. Kielland was a Norwegian semi-submersible drilling rig that, on 27 March 1980, capsized in the Ekofisk oil field in the North Sea, killing 123 people. The capsize was the worst disaster in Norwegian waters since the Second World War. The rig, located approximately 320 km east of Dundee, Scotland, was owned by the Stavanger Drilling Company of Norway and was on hire to the U.S. company Phillips Petroleum at the time of the disaster.
LP Odyssey is a self-propelled semi-submersible mobile spacecraft launch platform converted from a mobile drilling rig in 1997.
Transocean Ltd. is an American drilling company. It is the world's largest offshore drilling contractor based on revenue and is based in Steinhausen, Switzerland. The company has offices in 20 countries, including Canada, the United States, Norway, United Kingdom, India, Brazil, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
Ixtoc 1 was an exploratory oil well being drilled by the semi-submersible drilling rig Sedco 135 in the Bay of Campeche of the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 km (62 mi) northwest of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche in waters 50 m (164 ft) deep. On 3 June 1979, the well suffered a blowout resulting in the largest oil spill in history at its time. To-date, it remains the second largest marine oil spill in history after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Petrobras 36 (P-36) was a floating semi-submersible oil platform. Prior to its sinking on 20 March 2001, it was the largest in the world. It was owned by Petrobras, a semi-public Brazilian oil company headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. The cost of the platform was US$350 million.
SS Marine Electric was a 605-foot bulk carrier that sank on 12 February 1983, about 30 miles off the coast of Virginia, in 130 feet of water. Thirty-one of the 34 crew members lost their life due to hypothermia; the three survivors endured 90 minutes drifting in the frigid waters of the Atlantic. The wreck resulted in some of the most important maritime reforms in the second half of the 20th century. The tragedy tightened inspection standards, resulted in mandatory survival suits for winter North Atlantic runs, and helped create the now famous Coast Guard rescue swimmer program.
CCGS Bartlett is a Provo Wallis-class buoy tender in operation by the Canadian Coast Guard. The vessel entered service in 1969 and was modernized in 1988. In 1982, the ship commanded the recovery efforts following the Ocean Ranger sinking off the coast of Newfoundland. The vessel is assigned to the Pacific Region and is based at Victoria, British Columbia.
MS Jan Heweliusz was a Norwegian-built Polish ferry named after astronomer Johannes Hevelius that served on the route Ystad–Świnoujście. It was built in Norway in 1977 and was owned by Polish Ocean Lines and operated by its subsidiary company Euroafrica Shipping Lines.
A blowout is the uncontrolled release of crude oil and/or natural gas from an oil well or gas well after pressure control systems have failed. Modern wells have blowout preventers intended to prevent such an occurrence. An accidental spark during a blowout can lead to a catastrophic oil or gas fire.
A liftboat is a self-propelled, self-elevating vessel used in support of various offshore mineral exploration and production or offshore construction activities. A liftboat has a relatively large open deck to accommodate equipment and supplies, and the capability of raising its hull clear of the water on its own legs so as to provide a stable platform from which maintenance and construction work may be conducted.
Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the term is used to describe drilling activities on the continental shelf, though the term can also be applied to drilling in lakes, inshore waters and inland seas.
Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore drilling rig owned by Transocean and operated by the BP company. On 20 April 2010, while drilling in the Gulf of Mexico at the Macondo Prospect, a blowout caused an explosion on the rig that killed 11 crewmen and ignited a fireball visible from 40 miles (64 km) away. The fire was inextinguishable and, two days later, on April 22, the Horizon collapsed, leaving the well gushing at the seabed and becoming the largest marine oil spill in history.
The Sea Quest was a semi-submersible drilling rig. She discovered the UK's first North Sea oil on 14 September 1969 in the Arbroath Field. She also discovered the first giant oil field named Forties on 7 October 1970.
On April 20, 2010, an explosion and fire occurred on the Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit, which was owned and operated by Transocean and drilling for BP in the Macondo Prospect oil field about 40 miles (64 km) southeast off the Louisiana coast. The explosion and subsequent fire resulted in the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon and the deaths of 11 workers; 17 others were injured. The same blowout that caused the explosion also caused an oil well fire and a massive offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the world, and the largest environmental disaster in United States history.
Shipwrecking is an event that causes a shipwreck, such as a ship striking something that causes the ship to sink; the stranding of a ship on rocks, land or shoal; poor maintenance, resulting in a lack of seaworthiness; or the destruction of a ship either intentionally or by violent weather.
DS Seacrest, also known as "the Scan Queen", was a drill ship built by Far East Levingston Shipbuilding Ltd., Singapore, owned by Unocal Corporation and operated by Great Eastern Drilling and Engineering company. It was sunk by Typhoon Gay in the Gulf of Thailand on 3 November 1989. Ninety-one rig workers were killed after the vessel capsized, resulting in a massive legal case brought against the ship's owners UNOCAL. There were only six reported survivors: one Indonesian diver and five Thai rig crew, although these figures vary slightly depending on the source, though all of them agree the death toll would make the sinking the 3rd deadliest offshore disaster in history. Many of the bodies were never recovered. Typhoon Gay produced winds of 100 knots (51 m/s) or more with 12-metre (40 ft) waves. It left hundreds of sunken fishing vessels in its wake, killing 529 people and leaving approximately 160,000 homeless.
Kulluk was an ice-strengthened drill barge that was used for oil exploration in the Arctic waters. She was constructed by Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding in Japan in 1983 and operated in the Canadian Arctic until 1993 when she was mothballed for over a decade. In 2005, she was purchased and extensively refurbished by Royal Dutch Shell for drilling off the Alaska North Slope.
The MV Golden Ray was a 200-metre long (660 ft) roll-on/roll-off cargo ship designed to carry automobiles that capsized on 8 September 2019 in St. Simons Sound near the Port of Brunswick in Georgia, United States. She was eventually declared a total loss and was removed as scrap.
↑ United States Coast Guard: Marine Board of Investigation (1983) "Marine Casualty Report: Mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) Ocean Ranger, O.N. 615641, capsizing and sinking in the Atlantic Ocean on 15 February 1982 with multiple loss of life" Washington, D.C., U.S. Coast Guard. Available at: U.S. Coast Guard: Ocean Ranger
↑ Royal Commission on the Ocean Ranger Marine Disaster (Canada) (1984) "Report One: The Loss of the Semisubmersible Drill Rig Ocean Ranger and its Crew" Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Canadian Government Publishing Centre. Available at: Government of Canada: Ocean Ranger: Report 1 of 4
The Report of the Royal Commission (Canada) on the Ocean Ranger Marine Disaster (Report). Ottawa: Canadian Government Publishing Centre. 1984. OCLC607866939.
Heffernan, Mike (2009). Rig: An Oral History of the Ocean Ranger Disaster. Creative Publ. ISBN978-1-897174-41-8., an illustrated collection of first-person accounts from former rig workers, victims' families, government officials, media, and search and rescue crews.
Susan Dodd (2012) The Ocean Ranger: Remaking the Promise of Oil, Fernwood: Halifax. ISBN978-1552664643
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
