Oil rig expected to leave next week

The oil rig parked between Wied iż-Żurrieq and Filfla is expected to leave Maltese territorial waters by Tuesday, according to a spokesman for Transport Malta.

An official of Northern Offshore, the rig's owners, confirmed it would be leaving but did not say where it was to be taken.

But the rig's future location is hardly what people of the area care about. What they do know is that the view of Filfla from Wied iż-Żurrieq will finally be free of the rig in time for the peak tourist season, when hundreds of tourists and locals go on boat trips to the Blue Grotto, swim and scuba dive in the pristine waters.

Energy Exerter, the Liberian-flagged oil rig, was laid up last August, much to the consternation of Qrendi and Żurrieq residents.

The oil rig is cold-stacked, meaning it is undergoing maintenance and repairs, and not actually operating. It came to Malta after having operated in Greece.

The Ħamrija Bank, where the rig is parked, is listed as being about 50 metres deep. However, in specifications provided by Northern Offshore on its website, the rig can actually operate in "water depths of up to 91.5 metres".

When questioned about why the rig was not moved to deeper waters nearby given its capacity for such depths, Transport Malta justified its decision to place it in that spot by saying "the site has the ideal depth in terms of safety and is also ideal for carrying out required repairs, maintenance and surveys".

The scanning and selection process for the rig's parking spot took about two weeks. Pressed on the fact that the rig could have been parked at a different spot with less impact on the view, Transport Malta said "the position chosen was considered as ideal as per criteria mentioned above".