The Wandering Oil Rig Mystery

The tug turning the rig just south off Valle Gran Rey yesterday morning

The rig that was reported and viewed passing La Gomera on Sunday is still around... and doing rounds between the islands. This morning it was seen again close to La Gomera and being towed past Valle Gran Rey's southern approach. In the past few days it has been spotted off the coast of southern Tenerife, off La Gomera and it just keeps going around in circles  between the western islands of Tenerife, La Gomera and El Hierro. The 86m tug that's towing the rig is named Pacific Champion, registered in Singapore, built only a couple of years ago in 2011 with a GT of 4566 tons, and its last registered port of call was Las Palmas de Gran Canaria about a month ago. Rumours are doing the rounds (including one that says it is a rig that is to dredge material from the bottom of the sea for the new harbour in Tazacorte on La Palma to replace another dredger that capsized) but personally I think that it is an oil rig which is just waiting for the right weather conditions to be towed across the Atlantic (or to go wherever) after a refit in the docks of Gran Canaria which specialise in that kind of rig-refitting work. It probably won't be looking for oil, gas, nor anything else around the western Canaries, I think. How many more erratic circles until it goes away ? I'm tracking it and will let you know here if there are any interesting developments..., but just a while ago at around midnight it was heading at 3.4 knots (slowly) towards south of La Gomera again from the southern tip of Tenerife. As a neighbour said: ''Maybe they want us to get accustomed to the sight of rigs !?'' - Naw !

Mind you, oil exploration remains the hottest poltical potato in the Canary Islands.

UPDATE 13-03-14, 10pm:
The rig towed by the tug stopped over in Santa Cruz de Tenerife harbour today around noon. The tug Pacific Champion went on to berth in the harbour of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria later tonight - whether with or without the rig is not known to me. Get the spy-glasses out over there! This ends the many loops in the sea of the tandem in the western Canaries for now.

Oil Find Near Canary Islands

Anglo-Turkish oil exploration and production company Genel Energy have confirmed an oil find off the Moroccan coast about 100 km east of Fuerteventura in the Juby Maritime exploration area near Tarfaya. The company is exploring the area in a joint venture with Scottish Cairn Energy with a 25% stake held by the Moroccan state office for hydrocarbons and mines (ONHYM), and they are hoping to have discovered a well with a potential of producing 70 million barrels of oil. However, it is still unclear if this can be exploited as the oil is in depths of more than 3000 metres.

Oil rig passing La Gomera yesterday © GomeraToday

The Canarian government meanwhile wants to keep their promise of holding a referendum on the issue of oil exploration in its waters, despite opposition from the Spanish national government, and have stated today that the announced oil find only makes the referendum more urgent. They are also demanding the highest possible environmental guarantees from the Moroccan neighbours, and a withdrawal of exploration licences for Spanish oil giant Repsol who are planning to start drilling close to the area of the new find. A Canarian spokesman has also said that oil finds were announced several times before over the years without any oil ever having actually been produced. Just two kilometres from the current find Esso discovered a well in 1968, but it never produced any oil.
The issue is being hotly discussed in the Canaries with some hoping for jobs and new prosperity and saying that tourism and oil production could live side by side as was the case in Scotland, Norway and some Mediterranean countries - while many remain opposed, pointing to the grave dangers of oil drilling in such depths and stating that very little economic benefit may be felt in the Canary Islands.

The local government of La Gomera has voted to support a referendum on the issue recently. As if to illustrate the issue a huge oil rig was seen being towed past the coast of La Gomera yesterday.
UPDATE March 15th 2014:
Moroccan state agency ONHYM who hold a 25% share in the exploration have stated that oil has not yet been discovered and that the news of an oil find was due to a 'misunderstanding'. What was discovered was a layer of heavy oil or oil-rich sediment which would prove very difficult to extract however. 
UPDATE March 22nd 2014:
Cairn and Genel stated that they have capped and abandoned the oil well. They are saying that more time is needed to analyse and determine the quality of the discovered oil. Moroccan ONHYM already said that the oil reserves discovered in a band some 100 metres thick in Upper Jurassic deposits was not of good quality, Cairn and Genel will have to determine if or where to explore the area further.