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Coast Guard prepares for Shell drilling Plans deployment of personnel, vessels & helicopters to ensure any protests are lawful and to provide search & rescue capabilities Alan Bailey Petroleum News
Characterizing heightened activity in Arctic offshore oil and gas exploration as a forcing mechanism, pushing the urgent need for a heightened U.S. Coast Guard presence in the Arctic, USCG Capt. Buddy Custard told the Alaska Legislature’s Northern Waters Task Force on March 16 that the Coast Guard is taking a number of actions in response to Shell’s plans to drill in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas during this year’s Arctic open water season.
Major deployment The Shell drilling program will involve the deployment of about 22 vessels, up to six aircraft and more than 400 people, Custard said.
“We’re very concerned about any kind of aircraft mishap, as well as any kind of vessel activity or mishap,” he said.
The Coast Guard is working closely with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to assess what will take place and plan the necessary Coast Guard operations, he said.
In connection with the approval of its oil spill contingency plans, in May Shell will conduct a demonstration near Seattle of the company’s new well capping and containment system, designed to capture oil from an out-of-control well should a blowout preventer fail after a drilling accident, Custard said.
Emotive Given the emotive nature of Arctic offshore drilling and the vehement opposition to this drilling by some activist groups, the Coast Guard will be deploying resources to ensure that protests against the drilling do not disrupt commerce.
“Americans are allowed free speech. They are allowed to protest,” Custard said. “We honor that. Our job is to ensure that if there is protest activity it’s done peacefully, within the law and they’re safe, and it does not disrupt commerce.”
Shell’s floating drilling platform, the Kulluk, is already in Seattle and the drillship Noble Discoverer is en route to Seattle, in preparation for deployment to the Arctic, Custard said. The Coast Guard wants to make sure that any protests do not disrupt the Port of Seattle, he said.
The Coast Guard is also planning to station “deployable specialized forces” with a fleet of small boats in June in Dutch Harbor, where much of Shell’s fleet will be pre-staged but which is also a major fishing port, Custard said.
“We do have a concern about Dutch Harbor to make sure, if there is any kind of protest activity, it does not shut down the port of Dutch Harbor,” Custard said. “We’re not here for Shell. We’re here to ensure safe commerce. … If people do push the boundaries, the legal boundaries, we will be there to intervene.”
Drilling sites From the perspective of possible protest activity at drilling sites, the Coast Guard sees the first 45 days of the drilling operations as being especially critical, needing the presence of the Coast Guard cutter Alex Haley standing by Shell’s Chukchi Sea operation and a Coast Guard buoy tender standing by the Beaufort Sea drilling. In August, after that initial 45-day period, those vessels will be replaced by one of the Coast Guard new national security cutters, to patrol both drilling sites, Custard said.
However, should need arise, the Coast Guard could send its high-endurance cutter that normally patrols the Bering Sea north to support Arctic operations. The Coast Guard’s Kodiak-based Hercules C-130 aircraft could also fly forces up to the Arctic, Custard said.
The Coast Guard also plans to station two medium-range helicopters in Barrow from the end of June through September, for any needed search and rescue missions in the area of the drilling. This will be the longest period that the Coast Guard has stationed helicopters in the Arctic and will require the deployment of a mobile communications trailer to Barrow, Custard said.
“One of the things that is lacking up in the North Slope region … is a robust communications network,” Custard said. “At some point the (communications) infrastructure is going to have to get built up.”
Custard said that, with ConocoPhillips and Statoil lined up to start drilling in the Alaska Arctic offshore in 2014, and with another company planning to drill in the Canadian Beaufort Sea in 2015, and with Russia’s northern sea route through the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Strait opening up, the Coast Guard sees its Arctic program as a continuous, on-going effort.
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