Coast Guard plans base at Barrow

In response to the growing need for a presence in U.S. Arctic seas, the U.S. Coast Guard is planning to establish a base at Barrow, at the northwestern end of Alaska’s North Slope.

“We’re very early in the planning stage,” Eric Eggen, USCG public affairs officer for Alaska, told Petroleum News Oct. 25.

The base would potentially involve the staging of some helicopters and patrol boats on a seasonal basis, during the summer, Eggen said. And, although the Coast Guard hopes to open the base in the spring, details of when the base will open and exactly where it will be located have yet to be worked out.

Meantime, on Oct. 25, the Coast Guard flew a C-130 surveillance flight from Barrow to the North Pole and back, to obtain some information about what is happening in the region, including the presence of shipping and the current location of the ice shelf, Eggen said.

—Alan Bailey