Young: Ministry helping search for rig worker's body

THE Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries is helping Well Services Petroleum Company Ltd's efforts to find the body of missing worker Pete Phillip by cutting any red tape.

Speaking to reporters after the launch of a National Energy Skills Centre Technical Institute (NESC-TI) programme in renewable energy, the minister, Stuart Young, said the ministry has been supporting the company since the partial collapse of Rig 110 on December 22.

"When you look at what has become of the rig, and in particular where they believe it (Phillip's body) is, it is going to be an operation to try and find it.

"I cannot provide any further details. It will have to be Well Services and Heritage.

"But the ministry continues to be engaged with them to see are there any things that can be done to help...and help from the point of view of fast-tracking it, because we all want closure, in particular for Mr Phillip's family, who I met with on many occasions."

Young added that the ministry's investigation into what caused the collapse 44 days ago is ongoing and described it as "complex."

"The ministry has the investigative team, but as you would expect, it is going to be a very complex investigation, and I don't want them to delay, in any manner, the operation that is currently taking place to locate Mr Philip's body."

Well Service's offshore Rig 110 partially collapsed in the early hours of December 22, leaving one man injured and Philip unaccounted for. A search-and-rescue operation was immediately mounted, but switched to a search-and-recovery mission for his body after he was presumed dead on December 26.

By January 9 Well Services said it had located where Philip's body might be, but could not look there until the rig could be stabilised.

In an update to Phillip's widow Candacy two weeks ago, Well Services said the company it had hired to search for her husband had determined equipment available locally was inadequate. It said the company arranged to procure the equipment internationally, and it is expected to arrive in the first two weeks of March.

The Well Services incident is the second major energy-sector tragedy since the 2022 death of four underwater welders while working on a pipeline at Paria Fuel Trading Company Ltd.

Young disagreed with the notion the two incidents could signal an inadequacy in the industry when asked by reporters.

"You see this, unfortunately, taking place in hydrocarbon economies and sectors across the world, and that is why you have these international operators who you then retain to come in.

"It is always unfortunate. Every loss of life is unfortunate and something that we don't want, but sometimes, unfortunately, we have to deal with."