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Shell sends Fennica for repairs, most of fleet staged in Dutch
Most of Shell’s vessels remain staged in Dutch Harbor in preparation for the company’s Chukchi Sea exploration, including the two drill rigs, Shell spokeswoman Megan Baldino told Petroleum News in a July 15 email.
The icebreaker Fennica, which sustained damage while traveling through charted Alaska waters with a qualified harbor pilot onboard on July 3, is in transit to Portland, Oregon, for repairs, Baldino said.
She said Shell believes interim repairs could have been made in Dutch Harbor, but chose “to pursue a conservative course and send it to a shipyard where a permanent fix can be performed.” No impact is anticipated on the company’s drilling season, Baldino said, as the Fennica is not expected to be required until August.
Shell is planning to begin work in the Chukchi Sea in the weeks ahead and is waiting for two final permits, permits to drill, from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
NOAA finds obstruction The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said July 13 that the NOAA ship Fairweather, in Dutch Harbor for a scheduled port call, did a survey at the request of the Alaska Marine Pilots following the July 3 incident where the MSV Fennica, a Finnish multipurpose icebreaker, reported striking an obstruction in the vicinity of a charted shoal between Hog Island and Amaknak Island near Dutch Harbor.
NOAA said preliminary data collected by the Fairweather show rocky areas shallower than 30 feet, one as shallow as 22.5 feet, which were not detected by the last survey of the area, conducted in 1935.
NOAA said it would issue a “chartlet” or small area map providing a preliminary image and said that chartlet should be available in 10 to 14 days.
The agency said that less than 1 percent of U.S. Arctic waters have been surveyed with modern survey methods and in anticipation of growing vessel traffic in the Arctic, NOAA has the ships Rainier and Fairweather conducting a summer of hydrographic surveying projects along the western coast of Alaska, including Kotzebue Sound, Port Clarence and Port Hope.
NOAA also said it has a joint effort under way with the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy to collect reconnaissance bathymetry along the main shipping route from the Aleutians up through the Bering Strait.
Safety zone for Polar Pioneer The Coast Guard said July 14 in a Federal Register notice that it is establishing a 500 meter safety zone around the Polar Pioneer, one of Shell’s two drill rigs, which will be in effect when that drilling unit is on location to drill Chukchi Sea exploratory wells on the Alaska outer continental shelf. The safety zone is in effect from July through Oct. 31.
“The purpose of the temporary safety zone is to protect the drillship from vessels operating outside the normal shipping channels and fairways,” the Coast Guard said.
The safety zone will significantly reduce the risk of allision, a moving ship running into a ship that is stationary. The Coast Guard said allision “could result in oil spills and releases of natural gas,” producing a threat to the safety of life, property and the environment.
“Lawful demonstrations may be conducted outside of the safety zone,” the Coast Guard said.
- KRISTEN NELSON
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