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The need for heavy-weather experience PWSRCAC officials argue for drills in near closure conditions for tug crews when new contractor takes over Valdez marine services ALAN BAILEY Petroleum News
Some members of the Prince William Sound Citizen’s Advisory Council board have expressed concern over what they see as a need for heavy-weather drills for tug crews after Edison Chouest Offshore takes over the marine services for the Valdez Marine Terminal in 2018. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the operator of the trans-Alaska pipeline and the Valdez terminal, is transitioning the marine services contract to Edison Chouest from Crowley Marine, the company that has provided the services for several decades.
Edison Chouest is building a fleet of powerful new tugs for providing the services. At this point it is unclear who will crew the tugs and what training and drills the crews will undergo. But, although Edison Chouest will presumable employ experienced and qualified crew members, the worry is that this experience may not extend to the challenging sea and changeable weather conditions of Prince William Sound and the Hinchinbrook Entrance from the Gulf of Alaska.
Escort tugs, a vital component of Valdez and Prince William Sound oil spill prevention arrangements, accompany loaded oil tankers across Prince William Sound and through the Valdez narrows, ready to provide assistance in the event of an emergency such as an engine or steering failure.
The closure limit Amanda Bauer, board president of PWSRCAC and an experienced mariner in the Prince William Sound region, has told Petroleum News that the closure limit, the limit above which tankers are not permitted to cross the sound, consists of wind strengths of 45 knots and seas of 15 feet. Unless tug crews have practiced operating in these conditions in the sound, the crews will not have experience in how to safely conduct a rescue during an emergency that takes place close to the closure limit, Bauer suggested.
Bauer said that she would like to see a commitment from Alyeska and Edison Chouest that new crews will be trained in severe weather.
“We’d like a commitment from them that they will take the escort tugs out to near closure conditions and at least see how the tugs and the crews perform,” Bauer said.
Given the potential risks to crew members of operating in severe conditions, the suggestion is to first do drills in straightforward conditions, before stepping up into more difficult scenarios.
“They would certainly do it in increments, get comfortable at various levels of various seas before they get out there,” Bauer said. “But I think it’s important, especially for the crews, to be able to experience that weather prior to there being any sort of emergency in the sound.”
2004 drill PWSRCAC board member Robert Archibald, who worked as chief engineer on one of the existing tugs, recalled his involvement in a 2004 drill conducted in near closure conditions. His tug had to maneuver close to a tanker that was simulating a distress situation. The idea was to approach the ship’s stern, to pick up a line thrown from the ship, while both vessels were pitching in the heavy seas. The tug crew had to work as a team, positioning the tug close enough to the stricken vessel to affect a rescue, while at the same time confidently handling the tug in challenging conditions.
“If you never do it, you’ll never know what to expect,” Archibald said.
Both Bauer and Archibald have questioned the validity of the tanker closure limit, if the tugs and their crews have not been able to safely conduct drills at the limit and demonstrated that an effective rescue would be feasible.
“If you can’t rescue a tanker leaving Alaska, don’t let them leave until the weather gets better,” Archibald said.
Archibald also commented that, although the Valdez escort tugs do not normally perform their duties in the Gulf of Alaska, outside the Hinchinbrook Entrance to Prince William Sound, a tug does remain at the entrance until a departing tanker reaches a point 17 miles into the sound. Should the tanker run into difficulties during that first 17 miles of open ocean the tug would need to conduct a rescue operation, he said.
Alyeska response Alyeska spokeswoman Michelle Egan has told Petroleum News that mariners participating in the Valdez terminal marine services require training and experience to qualify for their roles in the fleet, and that Alyeska also requires specific training for the company’s Valdez ship escort and emergency response system. Mariners will participate in drills and exercises, including escort, tether and towing drills, and including simulator training. Some of the drills and exercises go beyond what the company is required to do, Egan said.
But Alyeska views exercises at near closure condition as presenting too high a risk to be justified.
“Undertaking an exercise in closure/near closure conditions poses an unacceptable risk to the people who work on TAPS (the trans-Alaska pipeline),” Egan said. “To conduct such an exercise would put people in harm’s way unnecessarily and is entirely inconsistent with our safety culture.”
Moreover, mariners coming into Alyeska’s marine support system have experience of operating in inclement weather in other parts of the world, Egan said.
Egan also commented that, following the 2004 drill in near closure conditions, Stan Stephens, a then member of the PWSRCAC board who had been on board one of the tugs during the exercise, had advised against conducting further drills in these conditions.
In an article published in the March 2004 edition of The Observer, the PWSRCAC newsletter, Stephens commented that, given that the drill had demonstrated the feasibility of a successful rescue in severe weather, further drills in such conditions were not warranted because the risks outweigh the disadvantages. He commented that drills should be conducted in seas of four to five feet, at most.
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