Goodbye, Shell - and - Hello, ConocoPhillips

Xiang Yun Kou in Resurrection Bay - image by Jackie Wild

The wounded warriors of Shell's dismal 2012 Alaska Arctic drilling fiasco are exiting Alaska waters and the Western Hemisphere, not to be back here soon.

The Kulluk is being towed to Dutch Harbor, where a very large dry tow vessel will take it aboard for the long, late winter trip to Asia.

The Noble Discoverer will be taken aboard the large dry tow vessel, Xiang Yun Kou, within a few days. The latter ship arrived in Resurrection Bay Thursday:

[T]o get the drillship from point A in Alaska to point B in Korea, the immense vessel Xiang Yun Kou pulled into the waters near Seward Thursday to dry-haul the Noble Discoverer to its Asian destination.  

But the Discoverer won’t be leaving right away. On Thursday morning, Coast Guard spokeswoman Ensign Victoria Swinghamer said the plan to raise the Noble Discoverer wouldn’t occur “for a few more days.”  

The Coast Guard also planned to inspect the Xiang Yun Kou upon its arrival to ensure it would be prepared for its long trip across the Pacific with the Noble Discoverer atop its 583-foot-long, 141-foot-wide cargo deck. The Coast Guard cutter Mustang hovered near the Chinese ship on Thursday, along with the tug Junior.

Here's a look at the Xiang in its submerged state, ready to take on a load:

Here it is, loaded with a rig that is probably in much better shape than the Noble Discoverer:

Since the beginning of Shell's disastrous 2012 misadventures, the company has been criticized for using used up equipment.  And its sole piece of brand new equipment - the Arctic tug, Aiviq, failed at least as spectacularly as did the foreign firm's rust buckets.

The other major oil giant getting ready to drill off our state's North Slope is ConocoPhillips.  They are having a giant, state-of-the-art Arctic rig being built right now:

Keppel Offshore & Marine Technology Centre (KOMtech) and ConocoPhillips are jointly designing a first-of-its-kind “ice-worthy” jackup to operate in the Arctic seas.  

The jackup will have dual cantilevers to optimize drilling operations within a limited time frame. It will be capable of operating in a self-sustained manner for 14 days and be equipped with a hull designed for towing in ice. The rig also will be able to resist the impacts from multi-year ice floes and ridges, as well as withstand a certain level of ice thickness.  

“The features of this jackup rig make it a cost-effective and promising drilling solution for the Arctic offshore,” Dr Foo Kok Seng, KOMtech director, said. “We believe that this joint project will achieve significant breakthroughs in offshore Arctic drilling.” The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.

Here is an artist's conception of the finished rig, the Gemini:

Shell isn't quite out of Alaska yet, but let's continue to hope that nobody gets hurt.