Failed braking system caused oil rig to tilt: Sembcorp Marine CEO

A failed braking system had caused the oil rig at Jurong Shipyard to tilt to one side on Monday, said Sembcorp Marine chief executive Wong Weng Sun.

Providing an update on the incident to the media on Tuesday, Mr Wong said initial investigations showed the braking system on one of the movable legs of the rig had failed, causing the platform to slide down the leg on that side.

Load tests run on the rig just a day before the accident had shown the three legs of the rig could bear a load of some 9000 tonnes each, said Mr Wong.

The company is now trying to stabilize the rig so that it can investigate the cause of the brake failure.

Eighty-nine people were injured at the Jurong Shipyard after the jack-up rig that they were working on listed on 3 December 2012. Preliminary findings suggest that one of the jacking mechanisms failed during a jacking test, causing the main hull of the rig to tilt severely to one side. -- PHOTO: MINISTRY OF MANPOWER