The investigation into the disaster in which 53 people died has been completed.

The Poronaisky City Court of the Sakhalin Region will consider the criminal case regarding the disaster of the Kola jack-up floating drilling rig, which killed 53 people. The Investigative Committee of Russia (ICR) believes that employees of Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka, which owned Kola, are to blame for the tragedy. According to investigators, they did not prevent the caravan in which the platform was located from overtaking the storm and, when the ship found itself in difficult weather conditions, they took measures too late to increase its stability. And foreseeing the inevitability of flooding the platform and the death of people, the accused, according to the investigation, decided to save society money on the rescue operation.

The investigative authorities of the Far Eastern Investigation Department for Transport of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation have completed a criminal investigation against the former acting deputy general director for maritime safety of Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka OJSC (shipowner of the Kola) Boris Likhvan and the acting chief engineer of the company Leonid Bordzilovsky. They are charged with committing a crime under Part 3 of Art. 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of traffic safety rules and operation of maritime transport by a person who, by virtue of his position, is obliged to comply with these rules, resulting in the death of two or more persons through negligence).

Why did the victims think it would be difficult to prove guilt in the shipwreck?

According to the investigation, in April 2011, a contract was signed between OJSC Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka (AMNGR) and LLC Gazflot for the construction of the Pervoochernaya-1 exploratory well. In accordance with it, from August to December 2011, the Kola jack-up rig carried out work on drilling a well in the Western section of the shelf of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Upon completion of the work, an agreement was concluded between JSC Far Eastern Shipping Company and AMNGR on towing the Kola from the drilling point to the port of Korsakov, Sakhalin Region. The icebreaker Magadan and the transport and tug vessel Neftegaz-55 were used as tugboats for this purpose.

According to the terms of the agreement, the route of the towing caravan ran along the western coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril Islands. The towing distance was 917 miles. In accordance with the requirements of the Safe Towing Guidelines, the maximum towing speed should not exceed 3.2 knots, and when the wave height is more than 4 m and the wind speed is more than 17.1 m/s, it is necessary to lower the support columns by two spans (approximately 13. 12 m below the main deck) and start drifting.

On December 11, 2011, towing of the installation began from the specified point to Sakhalin Island. There were 67 crew members on board the Kola. Acting chief engineer Bordzilovsky, having ignored the repeated demands of the head of the jack-up rig to remove 28 people from the Kola who were not involved in towing, verbally prohibited the organization of the removal of personnel.

How the Kola disaster was finally blamed

For five days, towing proceeded as usual. Then there was a sharp deterioration in weather conditions. The person responsible for towing, according to the investigation, having decided to overtake the approaching cyclone, decided to increase the speed to 4.8 knots, which he reported to Boris Likhvan Leonid Bordzilovsky, who did not give instructions to reduce the speed to the permitted limits. As a result of exceeding the towing speed, the outer skin of the hull was deformed, cracks formed, through which water began to continuously flow. After some time, the bow of the jack-up rig began to tilt. Via satellite communication, the defendants were repeatedly informed about the need to lower the support columns onto the jack-up rig to improve stability and switch to drifting mode. However, the ICR emphasized, “arrogantly counting on a favorable outcome of events,” they ignored incoming information and did not take any measures to defuse them in a timely manner.

Via satellite communications, the defendants were repeatedly informed of the need to lower the Kola's support columns to improve the vessel's stability and switch to drifting mode. However, according to the ICR, “arrogantly counting on a favorable outcome of events,” they ignored the incoming information

Under the influence of squally winds reaching 25 m/s and waves up to 4–5 m high, the fairing of the nose support was torn off on the jack-up rig. As a result of damage to the hull skin, the ballast tanks were flooded and the platform trimmed. The watertight seals on the upper deck were broken. The flow of water into the engine room in quantities exceeding the capacity of the bilge pumps led to “a further increase in draft and trim and subsequent progressive flooding of the intact compartments of the drilling rig.”

Almost a day later, the defendants in the case gave a belated instruction to lower the support columns, but due to the already formed tilt, they did not come out.

How the investigation into the disaster in the Sea of Okhotsk was carried out

In a critical situation, realizing that the list on the jack-up rig is constantly increasing, and foreseeing the inevitability of flooding of the platform and loss of life, the accused, the investigation believes, in order to save money for AMNGR, no measures were taken to organize a rescue operation, recommendations of the duty marine rescue subcenter "Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk" » the organization of timely sending of the SOS signal was ignored, the departure of helicopters of rescue services and other organizations to the disaster area of the jack-up rig was not organized in a timely manner. Contrary to the ban and inaction of the management, on the morning of December 18, 2011, the captain of the Kola gave an SOS signal. Unfortunately, the committee noted, it turned out to be very late.

On the same day, at 12 hours 46 minutes, the Kola jack-up rig capsized and sank in the Sea of Okhotsk at a depth of more than 1 thousand meters, which led to the death of 53 crew members.

History of the disaster in the Sea of Okhotsk

As part of the criminal investigation, a unique underwater examination of a sunken drilling rig was carried out using the Triton deep-sea vehicle. About 200 witnesses, victims and officials of various government agencies were questioned, numerous searches, seizures, inspections of documentation, photographic and video materials were carried out indicating the technical condition of the Kola jack-up rig. More than 60 forensic examinations were also carried out. These include complex comprehensive technical and operational expertise, numerous forensic and situational forensic examinations. The volume of materials of the criminal case is 28 volumes.

The prosecutor's office approved the indictment, sending the case for consideration on the merits to the Poronaisky City Court of the Sakhalin Region.

Nikolay Sergeev

Why did the victims think it would be difficult to prove guilt in the shipwreck?

How the Kola disaster was finally blamed

How the investigation into the disaster in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk was carried out

History of the disaster in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk

How the investigation into the disaster in the Sea of Okhotsk was carried out

History of the disaster in the Sea of Okhotsk

"Kola" sank due to savings