An offshore oil drilling rig being serviced at the Palumbo Shipyard shifted dramatically to one side after a botched stabilisation manoeuvre by the crew yesterday.

No one was injured when the rig, berthed alongside Dock Six beneath Corradino Hill, suddenly listed towards the Senglea side at about 1.15pm.

Seeing that gigantic thing lose its balance is shocking

Palumbo Shipyard general manager Joseph Calleja said all shipyard workers and crew members were accounted for.

He said the crew of the semi-submersible rig, Noble Paul Romano, belonging to Noble Drilling, were conducting a ballast operation when the incident happened.

The operation had nothing to do with the repair work being carried out by the shipyard, Mr Calleja explained, praising workers for the very efficient evacuation.

Crew members and workers were sent home afterwards.

One worker said he had just returned to the rig with his friends after the break when the incident happened.

“It all happened in a split second and the rig started to list. We panicked and ran as fast as we could,” he said, adding that workers were shocked.

The police were on scene in minutes and an ambulance that was sent on site left empty once it was ascertained that nobody was injured.

The rig’s project manager was not immediately available for comment.

The operation to rebalance the rig is expected to take some time and divers were deployed to assess the situation better, especially in the rig’s legs. The cause of the incident was not yet known.

A young Senglea man said he heard a crashing sound and rushed on to the balcony to see the rig listing towards the city.

“The scaffolding smashed into the sea,” he said of the metal frame that was assembled around the third leg that started to sink.

“It sounded like an earthquake,” his father added.

Another resident said that, at one point, he feared the rig would continue to list and topple over. “Seeing that gigantic thing lose its balance is shocking,” he said.

The foot of the rig that shifted eventually rested on the seabed as residents assembled on the Senglea ramparts to watch the developments unfolding. In December last year, another rig belonging to Noble listed at the Jurong Shipyard in Singapore, injuring 90 workers.

The rig, a jack-up type different from the one berthed here, listed after one of the jacking mechanisms failed, causing its main hull to list to one side.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com

The listing looked even worse from the Cottonera side of Grand Harbour. Photo: Suzanne Maas