Shell's Kulluk drill rig is almost ready to leave Alaska waters.
The heavy lift vessel that will take the damaged oil rig to Asia for repairs arrived in Unalaska on Sunday afternoon. The Xiang Rui Kou was escorted to its anchorage in Captains Bay by three tugs.
The Kulluk has been in Unalaska for about two weeks, waiting for the 700-foot heavy lift ship to sail in from China. Marine pilot Carter Whalen says it will take about seven hours to load the Kulluk onto the Xiang Rui Kou this Tuesday. The lift vessel will fill its ballast tanks and sink below the Kulluk, and tugboats will pull the Kulluk into position on the deck of the Xiang Rui Kou.
Two oil companies with offshore leases in the Alaskan Arctic both clarified their plans for future development last week, shortly after the announcement that Shell Oil wouldn't be drilling in the region this summer.
Conoco Phillips says it isn’t backing off its plan to drill in the Alaskan Arctic in 2014, as Reuters reports. A Conoco Phillips spokesperson told Reuters that the company is taking Shell’s experiences into account, but that its own drilling program is substantially different.
Stormy weather delayed the medevac of a crewmember from the F/V Beauty Bay Friday morning.
According to a Coast Guard press release, the vessel was fishing near St. Paul Island when a crewmember injured his hand. The call came in at 6:30am, but the Coast Guard helicopter forward-deployed to St. Paul had to wait until 8:30am to launch because of weather.
When the helicopter did make it to the 116-foot longliner, winds were 50mph, with seas of 20ft.
The 27-year-old crewmember was hoisted from the vessel and airlifted to St. Paul, where he was put on a LifeMed flight to Anchorage.
This is the Coast Guard’s fourth medevac from St. Paul this year.
The tiny Aleutian community of Atka could be in for some major growth over the next few years, if the Atka Pride Seafoods plant expands according to plan.
The plant is co-owned by the Atka Fishermen’s Association and APICDA, a regional community development organization. APICDA Chief Operations Officer John Sevier says processing capacity has doubled in the last year, and he expects it to double again in the next few years.
“Our expansion plans for Atka include about a 60 or 65 person bunkhouse, as well as increased capacity to somewhere in the neighborhood of 200-250,000 pounds of finished-weight product a day,” Sevier says.
Several dozen people gathered on the beach in Unalaska this afternoon to watch as Shell’s damaged drill rig was towed into port.
Four local tugs actually maneuvered the 277-foot Kulluk into Captain’s Bay, while the ocean-going tugs that towed it from Kodiak stood by. The rig will tie up at its specialized dock in the bay until the ‘heavy-lift’ vessel Xiang Rui Kou arrives to take it to dry dock in Asia.
Shell spokesperson Curtis Smith couldn’t say when the heavy-lift vessel is scheduled to arrive.
Icicle Seafoods’ Adak plant won’t be processing fish this summer.
Icicle didn’t respond to multiple interview requests, but the company’s plant manager told the Adak city council last month that the plant wouldn’t be operating because generating power is too expensive during the slower fishing months.
That’s disappointing news for Pat Davis. He owns the 48-foot F/V Cascade, and fishes for halibut and black cod near Adak. He says being able to deliver to the Icicle plant saved him a 450-mile run each way to Unalaska.
With both of Shell Oil’s Arctic drill rigs headed to drydock for repairs, the company says it’s suspending its 2013 drilling season.
Spokesperson Curtis Smith says the New Year’s Eve grounding of the Kulluk drill rig prompted Shell to reassess its plans.
"This was our decision, and our decision alone," Smith says. "[It was] based on, among other things, our strong desire to incorporate learning from our 2012 operations, and to ensure that our assets and our employees are really prepared to work again in the Arctic in the future."
Last year’s drilling season was plagued with problems. The company had trouble getting its oil spill containment barge certified. Then the Noble Discoverer nearly ran aground in Unalaska. The year ended with the grounding of the Kulluk in shallow offshore waters near Kodiak.
The Coast Guard helicopter forward deployed to St. Paul completed its third medevac of the fishing 'A-season' on Tuesday. The MH-60 Jayhawk picked up a fisherman with circulatory complications from the 170-foot Baranof around 6pm.
In a press release, the Coast Guard noted that sea ice made it impossible for the Baranof to get into St. Paul’s harbor. The 39 year old crewmember was airlifted to St. Paul for further treatment.
Another icy weekend is in store for the Bering Sea snow crab fleet. National Weather Service ice forecaster Kathleen Cole says winds will continue to blow ice into the crab grounds around the Pribilof Islands through the weekend.
“Probably to its furthest south extent by Sunday morning, and then after that, we will get some southerly... a southerly fetch, and then some southerly winds moving up early next week.”
