Oil Drilling Vessel News

The world’s only nuclear-powered container ship, the Murmansk-based 'Sevmorput' is considered to have no commercial future. The vessel, which has been lying idle in the Atomflot base outside Murmansk for years, was on 31 July this year taken out of the Russian Ship Register . The unique ship will end up a scrap metal, experts in Murmansk confirm according to a recent Barents Observer news report. The Sevmorput, which in the 1990s experienced major problems in international shipping following port restrictions…

“While moored off the coast of Dutch Harbor, the Noble Discoverer drill ship drifted toward land and stopped very near the coast. One of Shell’s vessels, the Lauren Foss, then safely towed the Discoverer to its prior mooring position,” Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said in a statement. Francis said a soft seabed that allowed the ship to drag its anchor and winds of up to 35 mph probably contributed to the problem. The area of the island the vessel approached is uninhabited and not far from Dutch Harbor, about 600 miles southwest of Kodiak. The Nobel Discoverer is one of two Shell ships that will drill exploratory oil wells in the Arctic waters of Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.