Buccaneer jack-up survives windstorm

Despite a local prohibition, rig legs are lowered to seafloor to stabilize the behemoth as mooring lines begin to snap dangerously

Wesley Loy

For Petroleum News

A recent windstorm caused some tense moments for Buccaneer Energy’s massive jack-up drilling rig, but the story ended happily.

The rig, known as Endeavour — Spirit of Independence, has been in port at Homer since Aug. 24, undergoing some modifications and inspections before going to work in Cook Inlet.

On Sept. 16, anxiety began to rise as high winds buffeted the rig, which was tied up at the city’s deepwater dock, said Bryan Hawkins, the Homer harbormaster.

“It got to be a safety issue,” he said. Two mooring lines snapped, a dangerous situation. The floating leviathan bumped the dock, breaking a fendering timber.

Two powerful tugs pulled on the rig in a delicate attempt to hold it off the dock, but not so far as to strain mooring lines, Hawkins said. The tugs experienced sustained 50-knot winds.

Finally, Buccaneer and Archer Drilling, which will operate the rig, made the decision to drop the Endeavour’s three legs to the seafloor to stabilize it.

That worked and worked well, Hawkins said.

“I think we all took a deep breath,” he said. No injuries were reported, and Hawkins said he hadn’t heard of any damage to the rig.

The dropping of the rig legs was a bit of an issue, as the storage of jack-up rigs or the pinning of their legs to the seafloor is prohibited in Kachemak Bay, which is designated as a critical habitat area for fish and wildlife.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game was dealing with this aspect of the Endeavour’s windstorm rescue, Hawkins said.

In most any other port in the world, jack-up rigs routinely drop their legs rather than simply float at the dock, he said.

But “emergencies are emergencies,” and it made sense to lower the legs during the high winds at Homer, Hawkins said.

“Frankly, I’m glad we had the option to put the legs down,” he said.

The Endeavour remained at the Homer dock on Sept. 20, its legs still on the seafloor, Hawkins said.

Buccaneer, an Australian independent, and its partners brought over the rig from Singapore, where it underwent upgrades.

Once the final details are finished at Homer, the rig is expected to drill first in Buccaneer’s North West Cook Inlet unit, then at the Cosmopolitan prospect off the southern Kenai Peninsula coast.