By Deborah Haynes and Paul Hughes LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A cargo ship adrift in a stormy North Sea narrowly avoided smashing into two gas platforms and the collision threat forced workers to abandon one of the structures and halt production. A tug boat was on its way to tow the vessel, the Vindo, and its nine crew to shore, the British coastguard said on Friday. Platform operator ConocoPhillips <COP.N> said all 30 people on the Murdoch installation were airlifted to safety late on Thursday and production shut down as a precautionary measure. A company spokesman was unable to say whether production had stopped at the second platform, Caister, which was unmanned, but it had been suspended at Boulton, a third nearby structure. All production was expected to resume on Friday morning. The three platforms lie in the southern North Sea some 42 miles off Britain's east coast. The alarm was raised on Thursday night when the Vindo, carrying 4,200 tonnes of fertiliser and registered in Antigua and Barbuda, drifted closer to the gas platforms. Helicopters were on standby to rescue the Vindo's crew as they frantically struggled to restart the boat's engine. In buffeting waves and howling winds, the vessel floated past the first platform at 2200 GMT only to head towards the second, which it also bypassed -- by just 800 yards (730 metres) -- at a few minutes past midnight. "The good news is that the vehicle has missed the platform," a spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said. "There are no more platforms in its way, " she said, adding that the tug boat should reach the Vindo by about 0900 GMT. The evacuated workers were expected to return to the Murdoch platform on Friday morning, the ConocoPhillips spokesman said. Tony Tewton, watch manager of Humber Coastguard which coordinated the platform rescue, described conditions as "very difficult" with high winds and waves of 6 metres (20 feet). The Vindo broke down on Thursday afternoon nine miles from the Murdoch installation. Both the British and Irish weather centres issued gale warnings for all coastal regions on Thursday as winds gusted at up to 80 miles per hour (130 kph). SEVEN MISSING OFF IRISH COAST Meanwhile, a helicopter winched two Lithuanian fishermen to safety on Thursday after two Irish trawlers sank in rough seas off southeast Ireland, but hopes were fading for seven other crew members. "The coast guard have located a second life raft tonight, unfortunately it was empty," Irish Coast Guard spokeswoman Veronica Scanlan said. Two crew members of the 24-metre timber fishing vessel The Honeydew 2, which operated out of Kinsale, were earlier hoisted from a life raft where they had spent the previous 20 hours. A helicopter and naval vessel, along with local life boats and trawlers, suspended the search for the Honeydew's remaining crew members -- one Irish and one Lithuanian -- at about 11.45 p.m. (2345 GMT) and were expected to resume it at about 8 a.m. (0800 GMT) on Friday, Scanlan said. (Additional reporting by Paul Hoskins and Chris Baldwin in Dublin)
