Norway probes rig disaster

Press, 1 April 1980, Page 8

Norway probes rig disaster

j NZPA-Reuter Oslo I The huge air-filled steel leg (of the Alexander Keilland accommodation rig will be towled into Stavanger Harbour toI day grotesque evidence of I the world’s worst offshore oil (disaster. : It will immediately be sealled off from the public for examination by the Norwegian Government’s four-main inIquiry team in an attempt to Ifind out why it snapped off the 10,000-tonne rig last Friday in a force-nine gale, causing the rig to capsize.

1 Norway’s Prime Minister : (Mr Advar Nordli) has declared a day of national mourning in memory of the 123 dead. Only 42 bodies have been found, but officials have said there can be no hope- of more survivors and the huge air-sea search has been abandoned. After the Government ( ■team, technical experts from the Phillips Petroleum Company, which leased the rig to accommodate oilmen in the Ekofisk area of the North I Sea, will go over the severed leg minutely. Of the bodies recovered only 10 have been identified all Norwegians.

I Mr Nordli said flags would. Jfly at half - mast on all offi' - icial buildings today. i The police have released lan official list of those believed to be dead. It includes . 94 Norwegians, 24 Britons, L two Finns, one West Ger- £ man, one Swede, and one Icelander. Among the 89 survivors there were 74 Norwegians, 11' Britons, two Spaniards, ona Finn, and one Portuguese. ■ j At a press conference, Mr Nordli paid tribute to the work of Norwegian, British, Danish, West German, and Dutch rescuers during the search,'- and said everything that was humanly possible had been done to save lives. One of the Norwegian trade unions representing oil workers said it would contact the oil authorities andask for a meeting to discuss demands for stricter security regulations on oil installatiorts. These demands, including better and more realistic training and disaster exerIcises as well as improved equipment of semi - submersible platforms, were raised before the Alexander Kiel- ■ land accident, according 'to a trade-union spokesman.