Courtesy US Coast Guard

Violent weather is preventing rescue teams from reaching Shell's Kulluk drill rig, which ran aground south of Kodiak Island on Monday. 

Heavy waves and high winds are making it hard to monitor the vessel, even from the air. But as of this morning, responders confirmed that the Kulluk hadn't spilled any oil near the grounding site on Sitkalidak Island.

The rig is carrying 136,000 gallons of diesel and 12,000 gallons of hydraulic fluids and other oil.

Commander Shane Montoya of the U.S. Coast Guard is part of the Unified Command. He said the responders have turned their attention from trying to save the rig to trying to salvage it, without spilling fuel or needlessly endangering lives.

"Our Unified Command that has been established has now reset our priorities and we're working on two priorities.  Number one is posturing ourselves to respond to a pollution incident if one occurs.  We have not received any reports of any kind of pollution response but at the same time we want to make sure that we are ready to respond if needed.  And the second is, we're working with our Unified Command to also now identify and assess how we are going to salvage this vessel as safely as possible." 

  The Kulluk's troubles started last Thursday, while it was being towed from Unalaska to Seattle. The line connecting the rig to the 360-foot icebreaking tug Aiviq failed, and the Aiviq temporarily lost power in all four of its engines. 

The Kulluk doesn’t have its own propulsion system and multiple efforts to restore the tow with various tugs over the following days were unsuccessful.

Sitkalidak Island, where the rig grounded, is uninhabited. But it is considered critical habitat for the endangered Southwest sea otter, and Steller sea lions. Environmental groups were quick to criticize the grounding, saying it shows that Shell isn’t prepared to drill in the Arctic.

Shell spent more than $290 million to retrofit the Kulluk for its work in the Arctic. The rig was designed to operate in sea ice, with a funnel-shaped, reinforced, round hull.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Unified Command team member 
Susan Childs of Shell said those reinforcements are holding up against 40-foot waves in the Gulf of Alaska.

"I think the Kulluk's a pretty sturdy vessel and it just remains to be seen how long it's on the shoreline and how long the weather persists.  So we are assessing the situation and trying to make sure that we focus on the safety of the vessels that are around it and the people that are on those vessels."

The responders are hoping for a lull in the weather, so they can restart their recovery mission.On Tuesday, a Coast Guard helicopter took a salvage team to survey the vessel from the air.

Shell has promised a full internal investigation of the incident; the Coast Guard will also investigate. Though the Coast Guard initially reported that contaminated fuel was responsible for the Aiviq’s engine failure Shell's spokesperson Curtis Smith says those reports were purely speculative.