[attach id=262534 size="medium"]Photo: Matthew Mirabelli[/attach]

If you thought the oil rig in the Grand Harbour listed at a sharper angle yesterday, your eyes were not deceiving you.

The rig berthed alongside Dock 6 at the Palumbo shipyard was back to the state it was in when it first listed earlier this month.

It is unclear whether yesterday’s movement was accidental or part of ongoing efforts to straighten the behemoth that listed when a ballast operation by the crew went wrong.

Rig agents Ablecare OSG could not explain the development and questions remained unanswered by the time of going to print.

The semi-submersible rig Noble Paul Romano, belonging to Noble Drilling, was never fully returned to horizontal after it listed on June 7.

Sources said chambers that filled with seawater when the rig’s foot sank had to be drained before it could be rebalanced.