Americas News
Fuel Additive Blamed for Alaska Vessel Grounding
A ship engineer found that "slime" created by a fuel additive on a towing vessel's fuel filters probably caused the failure of the ship's engine before the grounding of the Kulluk drilling rig in Alaska in late December, local newspaper the Alaska Dispatch reports.
The engineer, Carl Broekhuis of the towing vessel Aiviq, spoke at a U.S. Coast Guard hearing looking into the grounding of the Kulluk, part of Royal Dutch Shell (Shell)'s drilling operation in Alaska.
Broekhuis said samples of the diesel fuel showed a "clear, yellowish gel," which led to the failure of fuel injectors, though it is still unclear what the additive was.
"I'm not a scientist, but I'm telling you I believe it was something introduced to the fuel (that caused the engine failures)," he said. "I've eliminated everything else."
Broekhuis said all or most of the vessel's 12 injectors failed shortly after a towline between the Aiviq and the Kulluk broke on Dec. 27, and the crew was only able to get the Aiviq running again after new injectors arrived on Dec. 29.
Another Aiviq crew member, third mate Capt. Bobby Newill, said he had seen no reason to be concerned about the tow line, based on a monitor of the tension it was under, before it snapped.
"I see nothing that should have caused that," Newill said. "... I didn't expect failure."
Earlier in the hearing, Norman Custard, Shell's Alaska emergency response leader, said that he began planning for a crew evacuation of the Kulluk on December 27, four days before it grounded off Kodaik Island, Reuters reports.
Shell, which has spent at least $4.5 billion since 2005 on offshore Arctic leases but has not yet completed an exploration well in the area, said in February that it would not resume drilling in 2013.
