RESCUE services have scaled back a search for a man who has gone missing from an oil platform in the North Sea.
Police Scotland received a report around 9.20pm on Tuesday, 9 May, that the 49-year-old man could not be located on board the Noble Lloyd Noble installation,located in the Mariner Field approximately 90 miles (150km) east of Shetland.
Following initial searches of the installation, a rescue effort involving a helicopter, the Coastguard, two supply vessels and a platform supply vessel began.
Rescue vessels are continuing to search, but the main effort has now ended. A team of officers led by Detective Inspector Norman Stevenson has flown offshore to carry out inquiries and assist the installation.
Detective Inspector Norman Stevenson said: "An extensive search has been carried out which has involved a search and rescue helicopter as well as standby vessels and a platform supply vessel.
"The next of kin of the man have been informed of the ongoing inquiries and further information will be made available to the public when we have it. There are no apparent suspicious circumstances."
Noble Drilling, which operates the rig on behalf of Statoil, said it had mobilised emergency response teams to help in the search.
A spokesman added: "Statoil vessels have been involved in an extensive search of the water surrounding the rig and together we will continue to do everything we can to support the ongoing search effort.
"Our priorities are the safety of all the personnel on board, assisting in the search operation for the missing person and supporting next of kin and colleagues of the missing person.
"All operations have been stood down on the rig."
Noble Lloyd Noble is one of the world’s largest jack-up drilling rigs. It started production drilling on the Mariner field last December. Up to five wells will be drilled on the field before the Mariner A platform hook up and commissioning activity starts in the summer. First oil from Mariner is expected in 2018.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here