It could take until spring for crews to remove a grounded oil-drilling ship from rocks near a remote Alaska island, thanks to the fury of the North Pacific winter, a veteran marine salvager said. “Now it’s in an uncontrolled, unplanned, totally screwed-up situation”…
Alaska winter will challenge Shell ship salvage
DAN JOLING | January 5, 2013 03:16 PM EST
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — It could take until spring for crews to remove a grounded oil-drilling ship from rocks near a remote Alaska island, thanks to the fury of the North Pacific winter, a veteran marine salvager said.
The Kulluk, a Royal Dutch Shell PLC barge, ran aground during a fierce year-end storm, and more than 600 people are working on its recovery. But Dan Magone, who has worked on other major groundings in Alaska, said he’d be surprised if they can remove it any time soon.
“I’d really be shocked if this thing is so lightly aground and so lightly damaged that they can just go pull this thing off right away,” said Magone, president of Magone Marine, in a telephone interview from his headquarters in Dutch Harbor.