From Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ted-danson/shell-drilling_b_2468347.html
Ted Danson and Andrew Sharpless
01/13/2013
On New Year’s Eve, a 266-foot oil drilling rig owned by the Shell Oil Company that had been adrift for days, ran aground off of Kodiak, Alaska. In response, this week, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced a review of the 2012 Arctic Ocean drilling season. Let’s hope this assessment is more than just a paper exercise. The Department of the Interior allowed Shell to begin its drilling season in the Arctic last year in the first place — a season that was plagued with problems from the start. The administration must look very carefully in the mirror to figure out what went wrong that resulted in it allowing a demonstrably unprepared company to venture into one of the most remote, inhospitable places on earth in search of oil, and it must make sure that it doesn’t happen again.
In case you missed it, just after Christmas Shell’s oil drilling rig, the Kulluk, came loose from its tow ship, the Aiviq, in 24-foot waves in the Gulf of Alaska. First, the tow rope connecting the rig to the Aiviq split, leaving the massive drill rig to toss helplessly in the waves, carrying 140,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Then the Aiviq’s engines failed leaving it adrift as well, requiring a dramatic rescue by the Coast Guard in 35-foot waves the next day. Four days of drama on the high-seas put people’s lives at risk. It included Coast Guard rescue of the Kulluk crew and at-sea delivery of boat parts, as well as damage to vessels assisting in the response. Eventually, the wind and waves were too much for the response effort, and rig ran aground in shallow water — water that is also home to endangered Steller sea lions, threatened Steller’s eiders, threatened southwest sea otters, and salmon.
After a week on the rocks, the rig was pulled from the shore and taken to Kiliuda Bay — a place of refuge for wildlife and now Shell’s oil drilling rig as it undergoes a damage assessment.
Thankfully no one died, and it appears that a major ecological disaster was averted.
Shell’s decision to tow its drill rig from Dutch Harbor, Alaska to Seattle for repairs in the middle of the winter was bewildering. It’s a time when storms are frequent and waves of the sort encountered by the Kulluk are common, and it wasn’t long before the rig and the ship towing it, the Aiviq, ran into potentially life-threatening danger.
Continue reading at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ted-danson/shell-drilling_b_2468347.html
