A Shell rig that ran aground near Alaska’s Kodiak Island remains anchored in a nearby sheltered bay more than three weeks later.
The damaged Kulluk drillship is a key part of the company’s ambitious oil prospecting plans in two parts of the Arctic Ocean. Beyond its work last year in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s northern coast, it serves as a required backup for Shell’s contracted rig, the Noble-owned Discoverer.
“Once we know more about the Kulluk’s condition, we’ll know more about its immediate and long-term role in our ongoing exploration,” said Curtis Smith, Shell’s spokesman in Alaska, of the conical vessel built specifically for Arctic ice conditions. “There is no timetable.”
The Kulluk was being pulled across the Gulf of Alaska – part of a long trek from the Beaufort to its maintenance shipyard near Puget Sound – when it broke free of tow lines in a storm and grounded off Sitkalidak Island on Hogmanay.
A spokesman for the command team overseeing the move said it had been towed 17 days ago from its grounding site to Kiliuda Bay, a designated refuge area on the east side of Kodiak Island, where it has been anchored in place and tethered to two tugs.
While no fuel tanks were breached, the Kulluk had flooding damage to its power system and other areas, according to early assessments.