Rig sinking off Gabon forces BW Energy to suspend its spending plan

According to a Reuters report published in Insurance Journal, the jack-up rig (a drilling platform that plants its legs on the seabed and raises its hull out of the water) sank in the Dussafu Marin licence area at 21:40 local time on 24 October. Borr's preliminary finding points to a punch-through, in which one leg broke through the seabed and collapsed during preloading. BW Energy holds 73.5% of the licence and Panoro Energy 17.5%. The rig had not yet started drilling.

A Reuters report carried by Baird Maritime said the Gabonese Navy found 3 bodies on 28 October using remotely operated vehicles, but they could not be identified. Africanews counts 1 Indian, 3 Gabonese and 1 Croatian national among the casualties; the Indian national's death was confirmed on 27 October. Petroleum Minister Clotaire Kondja has opened a technical investigation. The ministry said there had been no harmful spill.

According to World Oil, BW Energy restarted production on 28 October at the MaBoMo facility, which had been shut as a precaution. The company said net Dussafu output fell from 19,300 to 16,800 barrels a day in the third quarter because of a pump failure. Its 2026 production outlook dropped from a range of 24,000–27,000 barrels to about 23,000. The Phase 2 campaign was set to add up to 20,000 barrels a day of gross output at peak; there is no restart date. The rig's insurance cover and the size of the loss do not appear in the sources and could not be verified.