Five workers are missing after a Bermudian-domiciled firm’s drilling platform sank in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa.

Borr Drilling’s Prospector 5 offshore rig was at the centre of the disaster 20 miles off of of Mayumba, Gabon on Saturday evening.

The firm, whose office is at 9 Par-la-Ville Road, Hamilton, provides drilling services to the global oil and gas industry through modern jack-up rigs designed for water depths of up to approximately 400ft.

A press release from the firm on Sunday, said a handful of workers were still unaccounted for.

On Sunday, Borr Drilling refuted reports that one fatality had been recovered.

The event is thought to have happened after one of the platform’s legs — 50-storeys high — broke through the seabed during an elevation operation, causing the entire platform to destabilise and sink in seconds.

Borr Drilling said search and rescue operations were ongoing.

A spokesman for the company said their onshore emergency response team continued to work with local authorities and their customer, to respond to the incident, support those affected and to continue to search for missing personnel.

Borr Drilling said: “The company is working with its partners and authorities to ensure a robust investigation is carried out into the cause of the incident; however, the immediate and overriding priority remains the ongoing search and rescue efforts and doing everything possible to assist the authorities and specialists leading these operations to locate the missing individuals and support those safely accounted for.”

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Borr Drilling’s stock dipped directly after the incident, but by Monday evening was rising.

It is understood that the Prospector 5 was booked through until the middle of 2027 by BW Energy, a firm that is also domiciled in Bermuda.