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Wednesday, Jan 11, 2012 6:09 PM UTC

Currents, Thick Ice Off Alaska Stall Fuel Tanker

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Topics: From the Wires,

Currents, Thick Ice Off Alaska Stall Fuel TankerIn this image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard the Russian tanker Renda transits through broken Bering Sea ice Jan. 9, 2012. The Coast Guard Cutter Healy is breaking ice and escorting the Renda to the remote village of Nome to deliver 1.3 million gallons of petroleum products to Nome residents. The delivery, which if successful would mark the first time petroleum products have been delivered by sea to a Western Alaska community in winter. (AP Photo/Mathew Rupp - US Coast Guard)(Credit: AP)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A Coast Guard icebreaker and Russian tanker loaded with fuel for delivery to an iced-in Alaska city have been stalled by Bering Sea ocean currents and thick ice.

The vessels could move forward five or six miles on Tuesday, but the strong currents pushed them back by about the same amount, said Mark Smith, the CEO of Vitus Marine, the company supplying the fuel.

“There was a lot of stop and go activity,” he said Wednesday morning.

The tanker is loaded with 1.3 million gallons of fuel for Nome, a city of about 3,500 people that missed its final pre-winter delivery of fuel by barge when a big storm swept western Alaska in the fall.

It was unclear whether conditions would allow the tanker and icebreaker to make significant progress on Wednesday. The tanker was reported to be fewer than 100 miles from Nome after it went 53 miles on Monday.

The icebreaker is creating a path for the 370-foot tanker in ice that is up to 3 feet thick.

If successful, the shipment would mark the first time petroleum products have been delivered by sea to a Western Alaska community in winter.

Jason Evans, chairman of Sitnasuak Native Corp., the company arranging the delivery, said the mission remains challenging.

“I think there continues to be a lot of pressure on the ice, so when they break the ice it wants to immediately squeeze together, or the broken ice wants to shoot back into the hole they just made,” he said Tuesday.

Shifting ice, described as dynamic ice, has slowed the progress of the paired vessels. The ice tends to close in, cutting off the path between the two ships. When that happens, the icebreaker doubles back and makes a relief cut to take pressure off the tanker and open a pathway.

“I think they continue to do well with the circumstances,” Evans said.

He said the tanker and the icebreaker were expected to go through a large section of thinner ice and then encounter thicker ice again near Nome.

The tanker is loaded with more than 1 million gallons of diesel and 300,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline. Without the delivery, Nome could run short of fuel before a barge delivery becomes possible in late spring.

The Coast Guard and the Alaska Department of Conservation are in Nome setting up a safety perimeter and preparing for offloading of the fuel, Evans said. The ship is equipped with a hose of more than a mile for transferring fuel in Nome, where ice near the port is about 2 feet thick.

“I think that is good because if they do have to kind of stop in the ice, the thick ice will hold these ships in place for a safer transfer,” Evans said.

___

Online:

Healy webcam: http://bit.ly/wEsemi

Mary Pemberton

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