Well Services ends search for rig worker Pete Phillip

SASCHA WIL­SON

Se­nior Re­porter

Well Ser­vices Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Ltd has of­fi­cial­ly called off the search for the re­mains of rig work­er Pe­te Phillip.

In a re­lease to­day, the com­pa­ny said that fol­low­ing the Well Ser­vices Rig 110 in­ci­dent on De­cem­ber 22, 2024, an ex­ten­sive and high­ly co­or­di­nat­ed sal­vage and re­cov­ery op­er­a­tion by both lo­cal and for­eign ex­perts com­menced on Jan­u­ary 13, 2025, as part of Phase 2 op­er­a­tions.

The com­pa­ny ex­plained that these op­er­a­tions in­volved com­pre­hen­sive tech­ni­cal as­sess­ments and sys­tem­at­ic search ac­tiv­i­ties car­ried out un­der chal­leng­ing con­di­tions, with one of the main ob­jec­tives be­ing the re­cov­ery of Phillip's re­mains.

"De­spite the best ef­forts and ded­i­ca­tion of all per­son­nel in­volved un­der these gru­elling con­di­tions, it is with pro­found sad­ness that we con­firm Mr. Phillip’s re­mains have not been re­cov­ered. With nowhere else to search and hav­ing ex­haust­ed all av­enues, a de­ci­sion has been made to aban­don any fur­ther at­tempt to lo­cate Mr Phillip's re­mains," the com­pa­ny said.

The com­pa­ny added that this out­come is deeply dis­tress­ing for all par­ties and that its thoughts re­main firm­ly with Phillip’s fam­i­ly dur­ing this in­cred­i­bly dif­fi­cult time.

Fam­i­ly mem­bers have been in­formed of the de­vel­op­ment.

"The or­gan­i­sa­tion ac­knowl­edges the im­mense emo­tion­al toll this sit­u­a­tion con­tin­ues to place on Mr. Phillip’s loved ones. We ex­tend our sin­cere con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly. This is cer­tain­ly not the out­come we were hop­ing for," the re­lease said.

Well Ser­vices reaf­firmed its on­go­ing com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing Phillip’s im­me­di­ate fam­i­ly dur­ing this pe­ri­od of grief, with con­tin­ued ac­cess to ap­pro­pri­ate as­sis­tance and re­sources and on­go­ing en­gage­ment ground­ed in com­pas­sion, trans­paren­cy, and re­spect.

Pe­te Phillip was among 75 per­son­nel on the rig when it col­lapsed. De­spite in­ves­ti­ga­tions by var­i­ous bod­ies, the cause of the in­ci­dent has not yet been dis­closed.

At the time of his death, Phillip was a fa­ther of five, and his wife, Can­da­cy, was preg­nant. Two months af­ter his death, his wife gave birth to a healthy boy.