Arctic oil armada battles against ice

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33959, 27 September 1975, Page 15

Arctic oil armada battles against ice

i Bu ROBERT . of the “New York Times," through N.Z.P.A.) POINT BARROW (Alaska), September 26. A five-mile-long, SUSSOOm armada of barges carrying essential cargo to develop Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope, desperately racing against time and Mother Nature, has turned back after a sudden change in the winds had aborted a dramatic dash around icelocked Point Barrow.

The set-back made it unlikely that the Atlantic Richfield Company. British Petroleum, and the Standard Oil Company of Ohio will be able to put the oilfields at Prudhoe Bay, 180 miles east of Point Barrow, into full production on schedule by late 197”.

The men running the huge convoy said that they had not yet abandoned hope, but admitted their chances were deteriorating hour by hour, as the icy winds of winter brushed over the Arctic Ocean and created still more ice in their path.

“I don’t think there’s much hope left now,” Dennis Miller, United States Navy ice observer, said after making a new aircraft reconnaissance flight which disclosed that additional ice was forming beyond Point Barrow. Until today, that area had been relatively clear of ice. “The safe navigation season is now over,’.’ he said. “It’s a risky game and every day that goes by it becomes more risky. The’question now is how long they are willing to gamble, and how much they

are willing to sacrifice if some barges are destroyed by the ice as they wait.” 30 mile retreat

Events yesterday were a great disappointment for the oilmen and Arctic shipping experts. After weeks of waiting, there was a change in the winds which nudged the Arctic ice-pack slightly away from the shoreline, allowing the fleet of barges, guided from the air by helicopters, to pick its way about 30 miles north towards Point Barrow.

Then the winds changed again, and the ice-pack packed against their narrow channel just as the barges were about 30 miles short of open water. The barges turned back, retreating almost 30 miles to the south, as a precaution, to ensure that a sudden freeze did not trap the vessels for the winter.

“We got so close on Thursday, we thought we’d make it,” said Captain James Former, skipper of the Coast Guard ice-breaker Burton Island, which is attempting to lead the barges through the icy waters. “They were about 30 miles short of getting through. If they’d made it, they’d be on their way,” he said.

On Thursday morning, however, ice reconnaissance: showed that the ice between Point Barrow and Prudhoe ( Bay made it doubtful if they: (would have found clear ; waters. The convoy, the largest of (its type in peace-time mariK history, consists of 17 s, 100 feet wide and 400 feet long. They are; pulled by a fleet of tug-boats.l Worst since 1898 Riding on the barges is what is virtually a city, including several buildings which are more than nine storeys high, and other equipment too large to be moved by truck to the North Slope. Before the buildings left Seattle in early July, construction crews " placed Christmas trees on top of! some of them as good luck I tokens.

The convoy has encountered the worst Arctic icing conditions in 77 years: not since 1898 has the Arctic ice pack moved so far south in summer along Port Barrow, which normally has a period

of about six weeks each summer in which vessels can get through. The barge traffic is not demanding: it needs only a narrow path, no more than 200 feet wide, and while the water is very shallow at the most northerly point of land in North America — only about 14 feet deep off the shore —this is adequate for the shallow-draft barges. There were originally 47 barges in the convoy, and 10 made it through with the help of ice-breakers. Nineteen others have already turned back and gone to ports in southern Alaska. Target .1977 Their cargo, consisting of .smaller items, is being sent north by rail and truck in a costly overland trip. One; barge was beached during a storm and is being repaired. The other 17 — with the biggest items and many of the most vitally needed equipment to start production in the North Slope oil fields — have been kept south of Point Barrow, waiting for an opening in the ice.

Under present schedules, oil companies want to begin production in the North Slope fields at a rate of 600,000 barrels a day in the summer of 1977, using the 798 miles trans-Alaska pipeline now under construction, and to reach a level of 1.2 million barrels daily by the fall of 1977.

This time-table was based on the gamble that the heavy equipment could be moved into the oil fields on time.