Dubai Petroleum Incident

Petrofac, the international oil & gas facilities service provider, as Service Operator on the Dubai Petroleum offshore assets for Dubai Petroleum Establishment confirms that at approximately 20.20 hours (UAE) on Wednesday 3 September there was an incident involving a helicopter in the Rashid field approximately 70 kilometres offshore Dubai.

An Aerogulf Bell 212 helicopter carrying two crew members and five passengers was engaged in a routine infield flight. During take-off the helicopter crashed onto the deck of the Resilient, the Maersk jack-up drilling rig. The aircraft then broke up and fell into the sea.

Immediately following the incident, a fire broke out on the main deck of the drilling rig which was quickly contained and extinguished. Emergency response vessels and aircraft were mobilised and incident management control measures were immediately initiated in co-operation with the Dubai Police and Coastguard.

By 01:30 hours on Thursday 4 September, it was confirmed that there were no survivors, and that there were no additional casualties on either the drilling rig or the platform.

All operations on the Rashid field have been suspended and the platform and drilling rig have been secured.

The relatives of the deceased, who are contractor personnel and are confirmed as non UAE Nationals, are currently being informed. No Petrofac personnel are among the deceased.

An accident investigation has been initiated with Dubai Police and the General Civil Aviation Authority.