Jack-up headed to Port Graham for winter

Escopeta Oil Co., which recently changed its name to Furie Operating Alaska, expects to begin moving the Spartan 151 jack-up rig to Port Graham in the next couple of days. Port Graham is an ice free Cook Inlet port on the southern Kenai Peninsula, southwest of Homer.

“It looks like our tugs braved 20 foot seas and gale force winds in the storm of the century to get from Seattle to Cook Inlet,” Furie Strategic Officer Steve Sutherlin told Petroleum News Nov. 17. “They should be arriving Friday.”

The Foss tugs waited for an opening to sail across the Gulf of Alaska, he said.

“They sailed within the performance specs of the tugs, but it was a very challenging trip.”

The hands on the Spartan 151 jack-up have “50 mile an hour winds and 12 degree temps on the rig today, but they have the rig buttoned up and ready to move. They’re anxious to get out of the weather. … We’re really proud of the way our guys have performed,” Sutherlin said, simultaneously praising Foss’ mariners and Crowley, which is “providing the Vigilant to help out, so we only had to bring two tugs from outside Alaska.”

—Kay Cashman