MURMANSK, December 20 (Itar-Tass) —— Three-million-rouble aid will be provided for the families of the Kolskaya drilling rig crewmembers who died when the rig sank in the Sea of Okhotsk, acting director-general Yuri Melekhov of the Arctic sea oil and gas exploration company, the Kolskaya rig owner, said on Tuesday.

The aid will be provided for the victims' families and the rescued people. The payment will amount to three million roubles for each of the families of the people who died. The sum may be increased. Besides, all who worked on the rig were insured by the Sogaz company, Melekhov told reporters.

The company has leased a hotel on Sakhalin for relatives of the rig crewmembers and pays for all the travel and hotel stay expenditures, he said.

Melekhov expressed condolences to relatives and friends of the victims.

The Murmansk Region has a day of mourning this Tuesday for the victims. Governor Dmitry Dmitriyenko signed the corresponding decree on Monday.

The Kolskaya rig (registered in the port of Murmansk), after completing exploration drilling near the western Kamchatka coast, was towed in a convoy with the Magadan icebreaker and the Neftegaz-55 tugboat to the Sakhalin port of Kholmsk for technical servicing. In the central part of the Sea of Okhotsk, the convoy was caught in a severe storm. The platform capsized and sank in 20 minutes. The sea depth is over 1,000 km at the site.

Out of the 67 people who were on the rig, 14 have been rescued and 14 died. The fate of the others is unknown.

The Sakhalin Region’s authorities will also provide aid for the families of the Sakhalin residents who worked on the Kolskaya rig. In the crew were eleven residents of the island. Five of them have survived. The fate of the others is unknown, the regional government’s deputy head Irina Trutneva said on Tuesday.