SALON

Monday, Jul 16, 2012 12:15 AM UTC

Coast Guard: Check shows no damage to Shell ship

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Coast Guard: Check shows no damage to Shell shipIn this Saturday, July 14, 2012 photo provided by Capt. Kristjan B. Laxfoss, a Shell drilling ship drifts near shore near Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island, Alaska. The Coast Guard says an inspection of the Shell drilling ship that lost its mooring and drifted toward shore of an Alaska Island shows no signs of damage or grounding. (AP Photo/Capt. Kristjan B. Laxfoss)(Credit: AP)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An inspection of a Shell drilling ship that lost its mooring and drifted toward shore of an Alaska Island showed no signs of damage or grounding, the Coast Guard said Sunday.

Initial estimates showed the Noble Discoverer came within 100 yards of shore in Dutch Harbor before it was towed farther off shore and re-anchored Saturday, said Petty Officer Sara Francis. No injuries, leaks or pollution have been reported.

Francis said the Coast Guard would continue to evaluate that estimate. The Guard planned to review images of the hull of the 571-foot vessel that were taken Sunday, when Shell representatives sent down a remote-operated vehicle.

A Dutch Harbor captain, Kristjan Laxfoss, disputed the number, saying that he took photos that appeared to show the vessel came much closer to the shore. Laxfoss said the vessel was not moving and appeared grounded.

“There’s no question it hit the beach,” he said. “That ship was not coming any closer. It was on the beach.”

Shell was bringing in divers to check the ship as a precaution on Monday, company spokesman Curtis Smith said. Francis said the Coast Guard was not onboard during Shell’s inspection of the vessel.

Smith said he couldn’t comment on Laxfoss’s photo because he was not at the site. He said the vessel’s crew didn’t feel any impact or vibrations that would indicate a grounding and that Sunday’s inspection showed no abrasions consistent with a grounding.

The oil company’s priority was to make sure the “Discoverer is undamaged and ready to drill,” Smith said.

A soft seabed that allowed the ship to drag its anchor and winds of up to 35 mph probably contributed to the anchor problem, Francis said.

The plan was to move the Discoverer to the Dutch Harbor city pier, where the divers will inspect the exterior and the Coast Guard will assess the interior, Francis said.

The Noble Discoverer is one of two Shell ships that will drill exploratory oil wells in the Arctic waters of Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Dutch Harbor is about 600 miles southwest of Kodiak.

Leading national conservation groups oppose the drilling because they fear oil spills in ice-choked ocean waters.

“Shell can’t keep (its) drill rig under control in a protected harbor, so what will happen when it faces 20 foot swells and sea ice while drilling in the Arctic?” Greenpeace said in a statement.

More Rachel D'oro.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations