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Aground Off Alaska
Photograph courtesy Jonathan Klingenberg, U.S. Coast Guard
Waves lash at the sides of the Shell* drilling rig Kulluk, which ran aground off the rocky southern coast of Alaska on New Year's Eve in a violent storm.
The rig, seen above Tuesday afternoon, was "stable," with no signs of spilled oil products, authorities said. But continued high winds and savage seas hampered efforts to secure the vessel and the 150,000 gallons (568,000 liters) of diesel fuel and lubricants on board. The Kulluk came to rest just east of Sitkalidak Island (map), an uninhabited but ecologically and culturally rich site north of Ocean Bay, after a four-day odyssey, during which it broke free of its tow ships and its 18-member crew had to be rescued by helicopter.
The U.S. Coast Guard, state, local, and industry officials have joined in an effort involving nearly 600 people to gain control of the rig, one of two that Shell used for its landmark Arctic oil-drilling effort last summer. "This must be considered one of the largest marine-response efforts conducted in Alaska in many years," said Steve Russell, of Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation.
The 266-foot (81-meter) rig now is beached off one of the larger islands in the Kodiak archipelago, a land of forest, glaciers, and streams about 300 miles (482 kilometers) south of Anchorage. The American Land Conservancy says that Sitkalidak Island's highly irregular coastline traps abundant food sources upwelling from the central Gulf of Alaska, attracting large numbers of seabirds and marine mammals. The largest flock of common murres ever recorded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was in Sitkalidak Strait, which separates the island from Kodiak. Sitkalidak also has 16 wild salmon rivers and archaeological sites tied to the Alutiiq native peoples dating back more than 7,000 years.
Shell incident commander Susan Childs said Monday night that the company's wildlife management team had started to assess the potential impact of a spill, and would be dispatched to the site when the weather permitted. She said the Kulluk's fuel tanks were in the center of the vessel, encased in heavy steel. "The Kulluk is a pretty sturdy vessel," she said. "It just remains to be seen how long it's on the shoreline and how long the weather is severe."
—Marianne Lavelle
*Shell is sponsor of National Geographic's Great Energy Challenge initiative. National Geographic maintains editorial autonomy.
Published January 2, 2013
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Escape by Helicopter
Photograph courtesy Sara Francis, U.S. Coast Guard
Two Kulluk crew members appear as yellow dots on the deck of the oil-drilling rig on Saturday, as they await their rescue by the U.S. Coast Guard helicopter hovering overhead.
The crisis aboard the Kulluk began a day earlier during an effort to tow the rig from Alaska to a shipyard in Seattle for maintenance. In heavy seas at about 12:30 a.m. Alaska time Friday, its tow ship, the Aiviq, lost power to its main propulsion engines about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the coast of Kodiak Island. Working through the night and morning with backup generators, the crew managed to avoid significant drift and restored partial engine power to the Aiviq, holding position while other vessels sped to the site. But with 20-foot seas and 40 mph winds pummelling the drilling rig, Shell requested a Coast Guard rescue of the 18-member crew.
The Kulluk, which Shell had retrofitted for Arctic drilling at a cost of $292 million, is designed to operate in the harsh conditions of northern seas, but it does not have its own propulsion system and relies on tow ships. The Aiviq is a brand new tow ship, and Shell Alaska operations manager Sean Churchfield said in a briefing Tuesday it was not immediately clear why the "extremely powerful vessel with powerful engines" would fail. He said an investigation would be conducted into the causes once the situation was under control.
Published January 2, 2013
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Safe Landing
Photograph courtesy Jonathan Klingenberg, U.S. Coast Guard
Crew members of the drilling rig Kulluk arrive at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak after being evacuated by helicopter from the vessel in stormy seas about 80 miles away.
Garth Pulkkinen, operations manager for Shell's contractor, Noble Drilling, said he talked to the crew after their rescue. "They did not share their inherent personal experiences with me," he said, but added, "The weather was terrible . . . there was a great deal of vessel movement . . . I'm sure they had a pretty interesting ride in the basket, and I'm sure were very grateful."
Coast Guard Captain Paul Mehler said the nearby location of Air Station Kodiak "was certainly to our advantage" in the rescue operation. "We were fortunate in this one," he said. Weather worsened after the rescue to what authorities said were near-hurricane like conditions, with waves reaching close to 50 feet.
Critics of Shell's drilling plans for the Arctic have pointed to the potential difficulties for responders because the nearest Coast Guard station to the drilling sites in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas is more than 1,000 miles away. Last summer, after several regulatory hurdles, Shell drilled two shallow test wells in the Arctic in a short window of opportunity before encroaching autumn ice. (Related: "Ice-Breaking: U.S. Oil Drilling Starts as Nations Mull Changed Arctic")
Shell said in a statement that the Kulluk incident was a "maritime transportation accident." It "did not involve our drilling operations, nor does it involve any possibility of crude oil release," the statement said.
The incident offers more ammunition to Shell's critics, however, as its effort has been riddled with setbacks. In mid-July, Shell's other Arctic drilling rig, the Discoverer, slipped its anchor in Alaska's Dutch Harbor and drifted perilously close to the shore. (Related: "Shell Scales Back 2012 Arctic Drilling Goals")
The joint government-industry incident command that has been established to respond to the current crisis said there were no casualties and only four minor injuries.
Published January 2, 2013
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A Battle Through the Night
Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard
The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley attempts to assist the tow ship Aiviq on Friday night, after it lost engine power while towing the Shell drilling rig, the Kulluk.
As the Coast Guard evacuated the crew of the Kulluk on Saturday, several vessels converged to the site in high seas to gain control of the breakaway rig. An oil spill response vessel, the Nanuq, and a tug, the Alert, arrived on the scene. The Alert was able to secure itself to the Kulluk with a 400-foot (122-meter) tow line to the Kulluk that had broken away from the Aiviq. At 6:30 a.m. Alaska time Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard reported that the Kulluk was being towed by both Aiviq and Alert about 19 miles south of Kodiak, but difficult weather conditions were expected to continue.
Published January 2, 2013
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Harnessing a Breakaway Rig
Photograph courtesy Chris Usher, U.S. Coast Guard
Beneath the propeller of a Coast Guard HC-130 aircraft, the tug ship Aiviq and oil spill response rig Nanuq struggle to tandem tow the drill rig Kulluk, the vessel in the background, in high seas on Sunday.
More ships arrived to assist, including the tug ship, the Alert, from Prince William Sound, and the Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley, from Kodiak. Although the Alert and Aiviq together towed the Kulluk for about eight hours, at about 4m:30 p.m. on Monday, the more powerful Aiviq lost its tow line to the Kulluk. The Alert, unable to tow the massive rig by itself, nevertheless held on for nearly four more hours in an effort to maneuver the Kulluk to an area where the response team believed it could ground more safely. At 8 p.m., the Coast Guard, fearing for the safety of the crew, ordered the Alert to detach from the Kulluk. Within 20 minutes, the rig was reported adrift four miles from shore, and within an hour, it had gone aground.
"I want to thank all of the responders who worked tirelessly for a better ending to this incident," said Shell's Childs in a news conference the night of the grounding. "The Herculean effort of this group of mariners displayed over the last four days to keep the Kulluk off land and away from shore was nothing short of heroic."
Published January 2, 2013
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Island-Patrolling Cutter Arrives
Photograph courtesy Nicolas Santos, U.S. Coast Guard
Waves break over the bow of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter SPAR, nicknamed the "Aleutian Keeper," as it arrived Monday to assist the vessels attempting to gain control of the breakaway oil rig, the Kulluk.
It was one of several vessels that converged on the site south of Kodiak where tow vessels lost control of the oil-drilling rig Kulluk. On Monday night, after the rig went aground, Childs of Shell said that weather conditions were so severe that oil-spill response equipment could not immediately be deployed to the area. "Turbulent seas would be expected to disperse petroleum products in a relatively short period of time," she said, but as of Wednesday, the rig appeared still upright and stable, with no sign of any fuel leak.
"In the weeks and months to come, we will perform a complete internal investigation to understand how this series of events that unfolded over the last four days have led to tonight's event," said Childs.
The Coast Guard said it also would conduct an investigation, and would keep information publicly available.
Published January 2, 2013
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Drift of Thunder
Photograph courtesy Sara Francis, U.S. Coast Guard
The oil rig Kulluk is seen here at sea on Saturday, 80 miles south of Kodiak, as its crew is airlifted to safety. The 30-year-old conical rig was named in 1982 by an Inuvik schoolgirl; the word means "thunder" in her native language.
The ship has a draft of 41 feet (13 meters); it is beached in water that is 24 to 48 feet deep (7 to 15 meters), about 1,648 feet (500 meters) from shore, says the Coast Guard (see map). The Coast Guard says that the Kulluk is upright and stable with no signs of environmental impact.
But on Tuesday, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation official Steve Russell warned, "The Kulluk still presents a significant threat to Ocean Bay and the surrounding areas."
The joint government-industry task force, the Unified Command, planned multiple flyovers on Wednesday to assess the site. Once conditions are deemed safe, the plan is to place a team aboard the vessel to get a better view of its condition. But weather conditions continued to be severe, with flight restrictions in place. The Coast Guard was maintaining a safety zone of one nautical mile around the vessel this morning.
The Coast Guard said it had no immediate estimate of the costs of the response operations, but said that Shell was assuming responsibility for the effort.
Coast Guard Captain Paul Mehler said the response effort had benefited from the extensive oil-spill planning and joint training in advance of Shell's first Arctic drilling last summer. But when asked if the plans had ever anticipated events like those unfolding this past week, he said, "This particular scenario—certainly not. I don't think we could have come up with a scenario as this has played out. This has been that challenging."
Published January 2, 2013
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Next: "Photos: Four New Offshore Drilling Frontiers"
Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic
Published January 2, 2013
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