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The Anchorage Daily News

23 Jan 2014

Court Delivers Blow to Alaskan Arctic Oil Prospectors

Arctic Drillship: Photo credit Gazprom

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a ruling against the Department of Interior and oil companies including Shell in favor of environmental and Alaska Native groups and concluded the federal government failed to properly evaluate the scale of oil production that could result from offshore lease sales in 2008, reports Anchorage Daily News. According to groups cited by Anchorage Daily News that oppose drilling in the Arctic (including the Alaska Wilderness League…

26 Feb 2013

Justice Dept to Consider Shell Arctic Rig Shortcomings

The Coast Guard found serious safety & environmental violations on 'Noble Discoverer' used in Arctic waters off Alaska. The Coast Guard found 16 violations on the Noble Discoverer, one of Shell’s two drilling rigs for Alaska’s Arctic waters. The company’s other rig, the Kulluk, has its own troubles, reports the Anchorage Daily News. The Noble Discoverer is a converted log carrier owned and operated by Noble Corp. for Shell’s Arctic efforts. The 514-foot-long rig was built in 1966 and converted into a drilling ship 10 years later. It has been upgraded and refurbished to work in the Arctic at a cost of $193 million. The vessel dragged its anchor and nearly grounded in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, before the start of its drilling work.

13 Feb 2013

Shell's Arctic Drilling Hiatus

Both of Shell's offshore drill rigs used during last year's oil exploration season to be transported to Asian shipyards for inspection and repair. The decision suggests the Kulluk and the Noble Discoverer -- Shell's only drilling rigs for the Arctic -- need major work and calls into further question whether Shell will be able to resume drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas this year. Two federal investigations are under way into Shell's Alaska operations, reports the 'Anchorage Daily News'. With both of its Arctic rigs in need of repair, Shell hasn't made any decision on drilling this year. It must have two rigs at the ready, with one serving as a backup to drill a relief well in case of a blowout.

02 Mar 2011

Oil studies Find Commercial Fish in Arctic

According to a report from the Associated Press, studies of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas are generating research of value beyond oil exploration. Surveys for possible oil and gas drilling off Alaska's northern coast have found commercial fish such as Pacific cod and walleye pollock in Arctic waters where they have not been previously documented, the Anchorage Daily News reported on Feb. 28.     (Source: The Associated Press)

11 Nov 2008

12 of 20 Cruise Ships Cited for Pullution

According to a report from the Anchorage Daily News, an analysis by state regulators shows that more than half of the cruise ships that discharged wastewater regularly into Alaska waters received citations. The analysis shows 45 tests on wastewater violated permit levels for pollutants. The most common violation was for ammonia, found in urine. (Source: Anchorage Daily News)

26 Oct 2007

ConocoPhilips Unit Fined

A ConocoPhillips (COP) tanker company has agreed to pay a fine and other penalties totaling $2.5m for spilling oily sludge into the ocean after leaving Valdez, Alaska with a load of oil - and then falsifying records to cover it up, The Anchorage Daily News reported on its Web site recently. Polar Tankers Inc. pleaded guilty in Anchorage to a criminal pollution violation, and U.S. District Judge Russel Holland placed Polar on probation for three years, the report said. Federal prosecutors said company officials dismissed the captain and chief engineer of the tanker, Polar Discovery, according to the report. While the spill itself would not have been criminal, according to Karen Loeffler, an assistant U.S.

09 Feb 2007

Problems Continue to Plague BP Ships

BP's new fleet of oil tankers, already dogged by cracked rudders and missing anchors, now has a new glitch. Fleet managers have been forced to replace deck fixtures called mooring bitts on three of four ships after tests showed they were defective and one violently broke down. Mooring bitts are stout metal posts around which ropes are lashed for tugging on ships or securing them to a dock. On Sept. 12, the tanker Alaskan Navigator was approaching the dock in Valdez when a bitt on the starboard bow broke off as a tug boat pulled on a mooring line, according to people with the U.S. Coast Guard, the ship's operator and a Valdez-based oil-industry watchdog group. When it broke, the heavy iron bitt shot over the side of the ship and plunked into the water.

12 Jan 2007

Anchors Break Free of Two Oil Tankers

Two of BP's new double-hulled oil tankers are sitting idle off Washington state after each lost an anchor while sailing through rough North Pacific waters, company and Coast Guard officials said Thursday. An investigation into how the anchors got away revealed "material defects" in the enormous steel claws, said Anil Mathur, president of Alaska Tanker Co., a Beaverton, Ore., company that hauls North Slope crude oil for BP. Each anchor weighs 16 tons, stands more than 13 feet tall, and hangs at the bow of one of the identical 941-foot ships. One ship, the Alaskan Navigator, discovered an anchor missing on Dec. 26 and the Alaskan Frontier lost one Dec. 23, Mathur said. The tankers were hauling crude through rough seas to West Coast refineries when they lost the anchors, Mathur said.

16 Mar 2006

Shell initiates Beaufort Sea Oil Exploration

Shell is planning to begin its Beaufort Sea oil exploration this summer, a state official said. The initial work will involve excavating "well cellars" from below the sea floor. The cellars, also known as glory holes, protect well equipment such as blowout preventers from ice scouring. Shell plans to start excavations in August and work only during open-water seasons -- before the ice comes in, he said. The company has acquired one drill rig, the Kullu, but Shell officials told him they will need a second drilling vessel as backup, Hutmacher said. (Source: Anchorage Daily News – www.and.com)