Yesterday the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released Safer Seas Digest a “one-stop shop” for mariners and others to review concise summaries of a year’s accident investigations. The digest also includes the NTSB's Top 8 Most Wanted List, which reveals the 10 safety issues that played the most significant role in last year's … [Read more...]
NTSB: Shell’s Poor Planning Caused 2012 Grounding of Kulluk Rig
The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that inadequate planning by Shell ultimately led to the grounding of the the company's Kulluk drilling rig in Alaska in 2012. The Shell owned ice-class mobile offshore drilling unit Kulluk grounded in heavy weather near Ocean Bay on the eastern coast of Sitkalidak Island off Kodiak on December 31, 2012 … [Read more...]
Kulluk Drilling Rig Sails Away on COSCO Heavy Lift Transporter [VIDEO]
![Kulluk Drilling Rig Sails Away on COSCO Heavy Lift Transporter [VIDEO]](https://gcaptain.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/kulluk-heavy-lift-207x125.jpg)
Ever wondered what happened to the arctic drilling rig Kulluk that ended up on an Alaskan "beach" after she broke away from her tow in January 2013? With assistance from Dutch Offshore Contractors (DOC) she was loaded on to COSCO Heavy Transport's Xiang Rui Kou and transported across the Pacific to Keppel FELS in Singapore and then subsequently transported to Zhoushan, China … [Read more...]
Shell’s Grounded Drilling Rig Product Of Poor Tow Plan Says USCG
By Steve Quinn JUNEAU, Alaska, April 3 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell ignored warnings about the dangers of a towing mission that left a drillship grounded in the storm-tossed Gulf of Alaska in 2012, in part to avoid paying millions of dollars in state property taxes, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a report released on Thursday. The Kulluk, having completed preliminary … [Read more...]
U.S. EPA Fines Shell for Arctic Air Pollution Violations
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has fined units of Royal Dutch Shell more than $1 million over violations of the company's Clean Air Act permits related to their Arctic drilling program in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, off the North Slope of Alaska. The EPA said that based on their inspections and Shell’s excess emission reports, EPA documented numerous air … [Read more...]