What is Shell doing in Alaska?

FENNICA has recently been sighted in the Chukchi Sea. What is Shell doing?

I see two possibilities. First they are retrieving gear left behind last year because Shell is not going to drill again next year

Or Shell is making preparations to drill again next year.

I would imagine making preparations otherwise the Aiviq would have split the scene, plus the response barge is ready to go.

Why are they using what I’m assuming is a foreign flag vessel to do their work? Seeing as how they’re so well invested in Chouest etc?

Edit: per wiki( yes i know not best source) it is the vessel I was thinking of.

In November 2011, Shell Oil Company signed a three-year contract with Arctia Offshore and chartered the Finnish multipurpose icebreakers Fennica and Nordica to serve as primary ice management vessels in the Chukchi Sea during the summer seasons of 2012–2014. The primary purpose of Fennica is to protect the drillship Noble Discoverer by steering large ice floes so that they don’t endanger the drilling operation.[24][23

Maybe they shoulda towed the rig!?!?!?

Nordica is still in Dutch Harbor. Saw it there a couple weeks ago. Interesting looking ship…

All I know is that huge blue elephant seal is still sitting here in Everett. See it everyday down there.

$200M of utter uselessness except for one thing and not even very good at that…BLOATED FUCKING IDIOTS!

[QUOTE=“c.captain;117410”]All I know is that huge blue elephant seal is still sitting here in Everett. See it everyday down there.

$200M of utter uselessness except for one thing and not even very good at that…BLOATED FUCKING IDIOTS![/QUOTE]

It is paid for, an easy job, and waiting to tow the Kulluk back north. It is their money. They can spend it patrioticly, like drunken sailors. God knows I would.

[QUOTE=c.captain;117410]All I know is that huge blue elephant seal is still sitting here in Everett.[/QUOTE]
I posted to a different thread thatI saw Aiviq leave the dock last week. I don’t know if it was sea trials, drills, or if they were just worried about settling onto the coffee grounds.

[QUOTE=tugsailor;117359]FENNICA has recently been sighted in the Chukchi Sea. What is Shell doing?

I see two possibilities. First they are retrieving gear left behind last year because Shell is not going to drill again next year

Or Shell is making preparations to drill again next year.[/QUOTE]

Finnish icebreaker Fennica’s out there mainly for Shell’s 2013 Open Water Survey, scrutinizing seafloors etc. More details here: http://www.ktuu.com/news/shell-oil-to-conduct-chukchi-sea-sonar-surveys-072213,0,5239574.story

[QUOTE=“z-drive;117361”]Why are they using what I’m assuming is a foreign flag vessel to do their work? Seeing as how they’re so well invested in Chouest etc?[/QUOTE]

Maybe there aren’t any American ice breakers capable of doing the jobs those boats are hired to do?

[QUOTE=Capt. Phoenix;118808]Maybe there aren’t any American ice breakers capable of doing the jobs those boats are hired to do?[/QUOTE]

sort of, yes. Next to the USCGC Healy there’s only … Aiviq. I assume they won’t be sending her up there as long as that fuel issue hasn’t been fully investigated and solved. And - as said - there’s indeed a 3 year charter with the Finnish company Arctia Shipping.

Of course not, but with such a boner for the bayou what’s a few hundred million dollars more to build the greatest one Gary can think up? They’re so commited to the arctic and since the Aiviq is such a perfect vessel why not just continue the streak.

[QUOTE=“z-drive;118810”]

Of course not, but with such a boner for the bayou what’s a few hundred million dollars more to build the greatest one Gary can think up? They’re so commited to the arctic and since the Aiviq is such a perfect vessel why not just continue the streak.[/QUOTE]

Cost is building a bunch of new ice class vessels, maybe even ice breakers (I forget the specifics), already.

I bet right now FENNICA and NORDICA are working in wide open water. Probably could be doing whatever work they are doing with any US flagged vessel but Shell gots its waivers for those foreign vessels and since they are paying for them they’re using them while that Blue and White whale sits there in Everett. What I wonder is what is being said between Shell and ECO? Still got to be some combustion taking place? Can’t be all happiness and light!

Don’t forget Turdwater has a polar class hull being delivered next month. If its mostly open water survey why can’t they rig a setup onboard one of them. Isn’t the Nanuq ice rated can’t they do the job as well?

I just am surprised (well, not really) that when it happens in the Gulf everyone on here gets pissy, but it happens in Alaska and nobody says a peep about the foreign stuff working there. Then again the one time a Us flag tried they embarrassed themselves. I’m more or less stirring the poop here, I have no specific dog in the fight as I don’t work in this sector or live there, just that I am a US seaman and don’t get why they aren’t using domestic tonnage that does seem to exist for whats being done.

Simple as stated the domestic tonnage is broke (aiviq) and nanuq is working in the GOM. The foreign boats are on charter and have been stationed in Dutch so makes the most sense to use them in my opinion as they actually work and don’t have magical fuel issues.

Yes, but I’d save this example for the next time everyone gets all worked up about a foreign exemption. If you’re opposed to them, be opposed to them all the time. Have they even made an “effort” to hire token Americans like they do in the gulf?

I’m assuming it wasn’t there yet when Rob was there. That or if he missed it we’re going to have to take him out back and shoot him. We should check the dates…

http://gcaptain.com/yard-keppel-shipyard-images/

[QUOTE=rshrew;118831]Simple as stated the domestic tonnage is broke (aiviq)[/QUOTE]

IMPOSSIBLE MAN! BITE YOUR TONGUE! The AIVIQ cannot be broken and never was! Didn’t the chief engineer say that is was “some additive” in the fuel? Not that he or anyone else say what the additive was but he knows that there was something in it and since he was ECO’s man you know he was telling the God’s honest truth and must have been the best damned chief engineer on the whole planet who knows everything! Personally, I have always held it was put in there mysteriously by the space aliens that inhabit Dutch Harbor (like any normal human would live in such a place as that?) or it was sunspot activity which chemically altered the oil or it was the hex put on the rig by none other than Xena herself!

ECO never builds a vessel that breaks because they are incapable of such imperfection…PERIOD! So stop being such a silly type person how rshrew!

Something was mentioned about it being at the Pioneer Yard which is up the road from the FELS yard. Keppel has four completely separate and distinct yards in Singapore. The original Keppel yard which is both newbuild ships and semi hulls come from and large tonnage ship maintenance is performed, the old SingMarine yard which is where smaller ships go for maintanance but where there is no newbuilding work done (except for the miserable BULLY rigs), the original FELS yard which is exclusively a rig yard both for new work and maintenance and the yard up on Pioneer Cresent where most of the FPSOs come from.

The drydock for semis is at the FELS yard and that is where I would expect the KULLUK to have gone to but perhaps the dock was booked at the time Rob was there and the rig was waiting at Pioneer.

I’ve added this photo to show the four yards and their respective locations. If you look really, really closely you can see the two miserable POS drillships NB1 & NB2 at the SingMarine dock.

I will certainly say that unless you go there, one cannot even begin to comprehend the almost unbelievable level of industry taking place in Singapore. Absolutely nothing even close to it even on a microscale in the US.

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