Divers unable to find any sign of missing rig worker

Missing Well Services Ltd employee Pete Phillip -

Divers began searching for the remains of Pete Phillip in the waters surrounding the partially collapsed rig 110 last week, but four attempts have since come up empty-handed.

This is the update his widow, Candacy, received from Well Services Petroleum Company Ltd.

Phillip, 45, was presumed dead in December 2024 after days of search and rescue efforts also turned up empty. He went missing after the partial collapse of the rig located in the East Soldado Field in the Gulf of Paria.

His family has since been yearning for closure while trying to move on with their lives.

His widow told Newsday she spent Christmas with their five children, including Javon, Phillip's youngest son, who was born two months after the accident. He was given the middle name of "Pete" in honour of his father.

"They had fun opening gifts. I took them out for dinner. It was great," Candacy told Newsday.

The family held a prayer service at his George Street, La Romaine home on December 22, to commemorate the anniversary of the accident.

A day later, the company informed them that the divers began searching the wreckage for Phillip's remains as part of the second phase of the recovery and salvage operations.

The first phase involved stabilisation works to the collapsing rig, which only began in November after a US-based company's equipment arrived in the country and approvals were given by all regulatory bodies, including the Environmental Management Agency and the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries.

A representative of the company told Newsday the search for Phillip's remains was an ongoing effort. The representative said that if the divers were unable to locate anything, the search would continue once the rig was lifted out of the water.

Candacy is hoping that his remains will be found when the rig is removed.

Phillip's mother, Patricia, and sister, Pauline, have expressed their disappointment with how long the process has been taking to give the family answers. Speaking to Newsday ahead of the one-year prayer service, Pauline said: "I find they are just moving too slow. Too, too, too slow because if it was some minister or some kind of thing...it is somebody's family. They could have moved better than that. They could have tried."

To this day, his mother is unable to speak about the tragedy without becoming inconsolable.