Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Well Ser­vices Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Ltd has of­fi­cial­ly called off the search for the re­mains of rig work­er Pe­te Phillip. In a state­ment re­leased yes­ter­day, the com­pa­ny said that fol­low­ing the Rig 110 in­ci­dent on De­cem­ber 22, 2024, an ex­ten­sive and high­ly co­or­di­nat­ed sal­vage and re­cov­ery op­er­a­tion by both lo­cal and for­eign ex­perts be­gan on Jan­u­ary 13, 2025, as part of Phase 2 op­er­a­tions.

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

“De­spite the best ef­forts and ded­i­ca­tion of all per­son­nel in­volved, it is with pro­found sad­ness that we con­firm Mr Phillip’s re­mains have not been re­cov­ered,” the com­pa­ny said. “Hav­ing ex­haust­ed all av­enues and with nowhere else to search, a de­ci­sion has been made to aban­don any fur­ther at­tempts to lo­cate him.”

The state­ment added that the out­come is deeply dis­tress­ing for all in­volved, and the com­pa­ny’s thoughts re­main with Phillip’s fam­i­ly dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time. “We ac­knowl­edge the im­mense emo­tion­al toll this sit­u­a­tion con­tin­ues to place on Mr Phillip’s loved ones and ex­tend our sin­cere con­do­lences. This is cer­tain­ly not the out­come we had hoped for.”

The com­pa­ny reaf­firmed its on­go­ing com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing Phillip’s im­me­di­ate fam­i­ly, pro­vid­ing ac­cess to as­sis­tance and re­sources, and main­tain­ing en­gage­ment ground­ed in com­pas­sion, trans­paren­cy, and re­spect.

Phillip’s wid­ow, Can­da­cy, and her step­son met with com­pa­ny of­fi­cials yes­ter­day. She said they were in­formed that the re­cov­ery op­er­a­tion had con­clud­ed but were as­sured that sup­port for the chil­dren would con­tin­ue. In the ab­sence of Phillip’s re­mains or any per­son­al items, she said no fu­ner­al would be held.

“While it’s not what I had prayed for, I was not shocked by the out­come,” Can­da­cy said. “I think they knew all along, but they just had us back and forth. For the pe­ri­od of time they took, it was shock­ing.” She added that she is grate­ful the com­pa­ny will con­tin­ue sup­port­ing her chil­dren and is now fo­cused on mov­ing for­ward. Of­fi­cials al­so of­fered to as­sist her in ob­tain­ing a death cer­tifi­cate, which she needs to man­age of­fi­cial mat­ters.

Phillip was among 75 per­son­nel on the rig when it col­lapsed. Re­cov­ery ef­forts had stalled for sev­er­al months as the com­pa­ny await­ed spe­cialised equip­ment and reg­u­la­to­ry ap­proval. Op­er­a­tions re­sumed on No­vem­ber 8, 2025, and the rig has since been re­moved.

At the time of his death, Phillip was a fa­ther of five, and his wife was preg­nant. Two months af­ter his pass­ing, she gave birth to a healthy boy. De­spite in­ves­ti­ga­tions by var­i­ous bod­ies, the cause of the in­ci­dent has not yet been dis­closed. Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of En­er­gy Ernesto Ke­sar had in­di­cat­ed late last year that the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Agency had ini­ti­at­ed le­gal pro­ceed­ings in the mat­ter, but there has been no fur­ther up­date. At­tempts to reach Ke­sar yes­ter­day were un­suc­cess­ful.