Pipe-welding ship Lorelay at rest off Sheet Harbour, N.S. (Jack Julian/CBC)

Rough weather has damaged a ship involved in laying the underwater pipeline to Deep Panuke, halting the work on the natural gas project off the coast of Nova Scotia.

About 200 people on board the Lorelay were forced back to shore last Friday after wind blew the vessel off course by 460 metres, dragging a portion of the pipeline her crew was installing.

A spokeswoman for EnCana Corp., the Calgary company building the line, said the wind damaged a specialized structure at the stern of the ship called a stinger and the pipeline was cut loose.

"As the sea state increased, what they decided to do was to detach the pipeline from the boat, lay it on the seabed, and then seek safe harbour after that," said Lori MacLean.

"There were no injuries detaching the pipe. It doesn't look like pipe was damaged."

The crew of the Lorelay has been welding together 20-metre long sections of pipe into a 172-kilometre pipeline.

The pipe-laying process, which began in July, was less than three kilometres from completion — less than a day's work in normal conditions — when the bad weather hit.

Equipment damaged

"From the vessel's perspective, the Lorelay itself, we understand there was some damage to a piece of equipment that actually lays the pipe," said Tim Church, spokesman for the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board.

"Before she can go out again we've got to be assured, as the regulator, that she is safe and so we'll be assigning a safety officer to the file."

Crews worked to repair the ship Wednesday. Meanwhile, EnCana said it hopes the vessel can be fixed, inspected and back at work before the winter.

"It's in no one's interest to have a vessel completing work out there that they can't get it done," said MacLean. "So now that the boat is in and being checked, it's to make sure it's good to go and when it is, it will return to the field and then we'll complete the pipe-lay operation."

MacLean said that although the affected pieces of pipe do not appear damaged, they will be brought aboard the boat and examined closely before the project continues.