JESSE RAMDEO

Se­nior Re­porter

En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Min­is­ter Stu­art Young is con­firm­ing that state owned oil and gas com­pa­ny Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Ltd is pro­vid­ing as­sis­tance to a pri­vate­ly op­er­at­ed rig af­ter a der­rick (which is a lift­ing de­vice) col­lapsed, send­ing work­ers over­board.

The in­ci­dent oc­curred ear­ly this morn­ing in wa­ters off For­est beach.

While de­tails are still com­ing to hand, Guardian Me­dia un­der­stand that the work­ers who fell in­to the wa­ter have since been res­cued af­ter it was re­port­ed that one man had been miss­ing.

Min­is­ter Young told Guardian Me­dia that the mat­ter is be­ing looked in­to:

"“This un­for­tu­nate in­ci­dent oc­curred in the ear­ly hours of this morn­ing. I re­ceived my first brief­ing at around 3:30 am. I am aware that the rig is owned and op­er­at­ed by pri­vate sec­tor, Well Ser­vices. We are as­sist­ing via Her­itage and will ren­der what­ev­er as­sis­tance we can.”

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This is a de­vel­op­ing sto­ry and will be up­dat­ed as more in­for­ma­tion comes to hand.