One dead, four others missing in Gabon oil rig disaster

An Indian citizen was killed after an oil rig sank off the coast of Gabon over the weekend, the central African country’s authorities said on Tuesday (October 27, 2026).

Rescuers were still searching for four other people lost in the disaster, which struck as the Prospector 5 platform off the coast of Mayumba in the country’s south was preparing drilling operations, according to the naval officer in charge of the effort.

The victim, a man of “Indian nationality received a blow to the head and died, according to the statements collected from survivors”, Vice Admiral Bekale-Meyong said.

Of the 114 other workers aboard the rig when it suffered a severe structural failure, three Gabonese citizens and one Croatian were still unaccounted for, the statement broadcast on the Gabon24 public television said.

Bekale-Meyong said that the authorities had deployed an underwater search robot, naval and air assets, drones, as well as a high-seas patrol vessel and a helicopter provided by neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville.

Prospector 5 was being run by Borr Drilling, a Bermuda-based contractor.

It was supporting the drilling work of BW Energy, a Norwegian firm which describes itself on its website as an “independent oil and gas company with operations and developments in Gabon, Brazil, and Namibia”.

According to Gabon, no oil pollution was observed in the wake of the disaster on Sunday (October 25), as the platform had been shut down at the time.

But the presence of 280 cubic metres of diesel aboard the rig justified continued monitoring, the authorities said.