Tug boats refloat oil rig that ran aground on Scottish beach

LONDON – A salvage team has refloated an oil rig that was blown onto a remote Scottish beach in a storm.

The Transocean Winner was being towed when it broke free of its tug and ran aground on the Isle of Lewis off Scotland’s west coast on Aug. 8. Two tugboats took advantage of high water levels late Monday and refloated the semi-submersible structure.

The boats are towing the rig to the eastern side of the island and will assess its condition on Tuesday.

The rig was grounded with 280 tons of diesel on board. Some of the fuel evaporated while much of the remaining material on board was transferred from the rig to the supply vessel Olympic Orion over the weekend.

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