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remote region - will they assemble such a response team? THE KULLUK On December 21, 2012, the mobile drilling barge Kulluk de- parted from the docks of Dutch Harbor, Alaska on its way south by tug to Seattle. She carried a crew of 18 along with 150,000 gallons of fuel and oil onboard. The 81-m rig, owned and operated by Royal Dutch Shell, had a four-day window of good weather to get out of the notoriously rough and cold patch of water known as the Gulf of Alaska. The distance be- tween the two ports is roughly 2,000 miles and it was expected that the journey would take weeks. Top speed for the Kulluk was 4 knots. Time passed interminably for the crew, who were mostly from the Gulf of Mexico and had never been this far north. As they motored, a storm developed and the towline connect- ing the Kulluk to the tug snapped. Hastily the crew rigged a weaker, emergency towline but this became useless when the tug’s engines cut out, leaving both the tug and 28,000 ton Kul- luk at the mercy of the storm. As this was the dead of winter in the Gulf of Alaska, there were no other boats nearby that could lend any assistance, so a distress call went out to the Coast Guard. Gusts of wind at this time reportedly were in excess of over 50 knots and produced 40 ft.waves. The Coast Guard arrived but soon found the situation out of hand. Now with 70 knot winds blowing hard, the tugboat Alert released Kulluk and let her drift. At 9 p.m. on December 31, Kulluk ran aground on the rocks of Sitkalidak Island off Kodiak. It would be another week be- fore crews could fl oat the Kulluk again. In the days and weeks afterward, experts weighed in with the opinion that it was clear Shell’s massive $290 million effort to extract oil was no match for Alaska’s weather and sea conditions. Kulluk became grounded on New Years Eve, 2012, and quickly became a lightning rod for lack of over- sight into oil drilling in the Arctic. www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 39 MTR #3 (34-49).indd 39 4/11/2014 11:36:41 AM
