A call was made to the Coast Guard yes­ter­day for help in evac­u­at­ing the crew from a rig that was ex­pe­ri­enc­ing me­chan­i­cal prob­lems in the Gulf of Paria. Eye­wit­ness­es said it be­gan to lean to one side. An emer­gency call was placed to the T&T Coast Guard re­quest­ing as­sis­tance and pos­si­ble evac­u­a­tion of the crew. But af­ter re­spond­ing, the T&T Coast Guard was com­mend­ed for the re­sponse and told that all was well on board the rig, since re­pairs had al­ready start­ed.

The in­ci­dent oc­curred short­ly be­fore 3 pm, some two and a half miles south-east of Es­colon Point, Gas­par Grande Is­land, in T&T wa­ters. Up to late yes­ter­day, me­chan­i­cal en­gi­neers aboard the rig named Aban Pearl were con­duct­ing re­pairs to a flota­tion de­vice.

Sources at the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries con­firmed there were no Trinida­di­an aboard the rig.

Ac­cord­ing to Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer at the T&T Coast Guard Lt Kirk Jean Bap­tiste, the T&T Coast Guard re­ceived a dis­tress call from the rig around 2.45 pm. "The Coast Guard re­ceived a call that one of the flota­tion de­vices on the rig was tak­ing in wa­ter which caused the rig to lean on one side," he said. Sources said it be­longed to an In­di­an com­pa­ny, but was reg­is­tered in Sin­ga­pore. They said it was not work­ing, but just pass­ing through T&T wa­ters. Rigs are nor­mal­ly moved with the help of oth­er boats.