Two separate federal agencies announced Tuesday that they will be launching investigations into Shell’s Arctic drilling operations. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo said his agency would be conducting a full marine casualty investigation into the recent grounding of the Kulluk, looking for answers to questions about why the rig was being moved, and why the tug towing it lost power, among other things.

The anchor-handling vessel, the Aiviq, tows the Kulluk to a safe harbor location in Kiliuda Bay, Alaska on Jan. 7, 2013/ U.S. Coast Guard officer Jonathan Klingenberg

The Royal Dutch Shell drilling rig Kulluk is now safely anchored in Kiliuda Bay. A flotilla of eight vessels escorted the round, 266-foot oil rig during a pre-dawn voyage from Sitkalidak Island, where it has sat, grounded, for a week.

The Kulluk was pulled from the beach at 10:10 p.m. last night and towed at speeds up to 5 knots by the 360-foot tug Aiviq the 45 miles to its temporary place of refuge.

A five-person assessment team spent about three hours aboard the grounded Shell drilling rig Kulluk Wednesday afternoon. Weather conditions around Sitkalidak Island improved enough that a Coast Guard helicopter was able to lower the men and an emergency towing package by hoist to the deck of the rig. 

Shell’s Alaska Venture Operations Manager Sean Churchfield said the preliminary report from the crew showed a mostly intact interior.

As of early this morning the grounded Shell Exploration drilling rig Kulluk is reported as remaining stable with no oil spill pollution observed. That word from the Unified Command office at 6:50 this morning. It echoes the latest situation reports from the Command, made up of industry, state, federal and local agencies. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s situation report concurs.

Kulluk under tow on Sunday/Credit: Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Chris Usher

After days of failed rescue efforts, Shell’s Kulluk drill rig has run aground near Kodiak Island. The conical rig hit bottom in shallow offshore waters Monday night around 9pm. So far there are no reports of an oil spill, although the vessel is carrying 140,000 gallons of diesel and 12,000 gallons of other lubricants. Susan Childs, the incident commander and Shell’s venture support integrator, told reporters at a press conference Monday night that the vessel’s tanks are isolated in the interior of the vessel and encased in heavy steel.

Shell’s Noble Discoverer drill rig has had several high-profile mishaps in 2012. Now, the Coast Guard says it found problems with the rig's on-board systems during an emergency inspection in Seward.

Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow says the vessel was on the Coast Guard’s radar because of a stack fire that broke out while the rig was tied up in Unalaska in November. Then the Noble Discoverer headed for Seward, where Wadlow says it had problems with its propulsion system. Those two incidents, in such close proximity, prompted the Coast Guard to send safety inspectors aboard.

It’s been eight years since the Selendang Ayu cargo ship lost control and split in half outside Unalaska, spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil and killing six crewmembers.

Since then, a team of consultants and maritime experts have been studying ways to keep the Aleutian Islands safe from passing vessels. Many agree that a robust rescue tug would help. But there’s a lot of disagreement over how soon the tug is needed -- and whose job it is to acquire it.

The Aleut Corporation is dipping its toe into the energy business in Unalaska. CEO David Gillespie says the corporation wants to start researching geothermal power at Makushin volcano.

"Our interest is to look the current state of energy in the Aleutians and in this case, Unalaska in particular, and look at things like demand forecasts and what the role of fish processing might or might not be in the project," Gillespie says.

For the first time since the fishery reopened in 2009, crabbers have caught the entire quota of St. Matthew’s blue king crab. The last of 89 landings was made on December 8, bringing the total catch to just 14,000 pounds shy of the 1.6 million pound quota.

Last year, fishermen landed roughly the same amount of crab, but the quota was 30 percent higher and severe weather hampered the season. This year’s catch rate was slightly up, at 10 crab per pot, compared to nine last year, while the average weight was the same. The season closes on February 1.