British Petroleum (BP) has hailed last week's repair operation to a stricken oil tanker off Bermuda as a text book example of how to respond to potentially disastrous problems.

The British Valour continued its journey to Free Port, Texas, on Thursday afternoon after being stranded south east of the Island for 12 days due to engine problems.

The ship, which was en route from Norway with 233,000 tonnes of North Sea crude oil, was never in danger of breaking up off the Island's reefs, BP operational integrity manager Bob Fleming told The Royal Gazette on Friday.

"This is something we regularly train for. Every major company has emergency reaction plans, and this went very well,'' he said.

An international team of experts reached the ship last Sunday, a week after a crankcase explosion disabled an engine 92 miles southeast of the Island.

BP, which chartered the ship, used contractors from New York, engine experts from the United Kingdom and Poland, and three Japanese engineers from Mitsubishi, the company which manufactured the engine.

"Basically, we doubled up on everything to be extra sure,'' said Mr. Fleming.

"We knew the contractors in New York as we had used them before and we had people we had dealt with in Europe.'' A hole was blown in one piston of the oil tanker, which was replaced by technicians working on Sunday and Monday.

They rested on Tuesday while tests were carried out on the entire engine.

Mr. Fleming and the team sailed to and from the tanker from Bermuda on the Delaware-based tug Powhatan , which put into St. George's late last week.

"The tug was capable of towing the ship for long tug and we had the two Bermudian tugs in addition (if it got near the reefs).

"The ship was routed so it was never nearer than 120 miles from Bermuda so it was routed well away from Bermuda. So we never got to a situation (where there was a danger),'' said Mr. Fleming.

A Lloyds Registry of Shipping officer and a specialist from the Isle of Man, where the ship is registered, gave the ship the all-clear to set sail on Thursday.