Majestic Rig is a Swamp environment and the Shallow Water Offshore environment drilling rig owned by Depthwize Limited an indigenous drilling contractor that operate three rigs, two Swamp barges and one ultra shallow off shore rig in Nigeria oil and gas industry. In addition to the three drilling rig Units, Depthwize has three additional Units located in the USA at various stages of life enhancement.

One of the three operated shallow and swamp rigs which was contracted to Seplat Energy an indigenous exploration and production company in Nigeria was in early hours of August 16 2023 reported by have capsized on its way to one of the operating oilfield locations in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Reporting the devastating incident on one of it social media platforms, Seplat Energy expressed company’s profound regrets to announce a serious incident on the Depthwise swamp drilling rig “Majestic” in the early hours of this morning. Seplat as the operator of the SEPLAT/NNPCL joint venture contracted the rig. It was in-transit to its planned drilling location at Ovhor in Delta State when it capsized.

According to the company’s report as regards to the degree of casualty incidence, 92 of the 96-member crew are accounted for and safe. However, tragically one fatality occurred during the incident, while three other rig personnel are still missing. The actual position of the company on where about of the three missing workers is yet to confirmed. But the possibility of hope to their rescue is still on course.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the crew member who sadly lost his life and the three crew members who are still missing at the time of this report. Our emergency response and rescue efforts working alongside the rig owner and the authorities have been activated and are onsite. Our utmost priority will continue to be the safety and wellbeing of all the affected personnel and their families,” the company expressed regrets.

Taking a cursory look on the operations of Seplat Energy in Nigeria and the design compositions of Depthwize’s Majestic Rig; Seplat Energy is operator of the three blocks, which together form one contract area, on behalf of the NPDC/Seplat Joint Venture. The company has a 45% working interest in OMLs 4, 38 and 41 which are located in Edo (OML 4) and Delta (OMLs 38 and 41) States onshore Nigeria.

Seplat Production is predominantly from seven fields, namely Amukpe, Oben, Okporhuru, Ovhor, Orogho, Sapele and Sapele Shallow, and the partners aim to bring additional fields onstream in the future.Since its inception in 2010, the company has developed the penchant in growing its production level through drilling of new wells and has engaged Majestic Rig to achieve this humbled aspiration. The Majestic was en route to achieve this corporate aspiration when the tragic event struck.

However according to data made available by the company, Majestic Rig is designed to Operate on a water depth (protected water) of about 8 ft. to 24 ft. Majestic Rig is a posted inland drilling barge built at Marco Polo shipyard in Singapore in 2011. With the designed capacity to accommodate 120 workers, the rig has the maximum drilling depth of about 30,000 feet and four cranes of 150 tons total combined tonnage. While await in unraveling the root cause of this ugly incident, Majestic rig is believed to have other numerous excellent unique features that could have kept her afloat.