Tanker grounds in Alaska

Friday, February 3, 2006

Tanker grounds in Alaska
Less than 100 gallons of fuel is spilled; no injuries

By MARY PEMBERTON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- An oil tanker being loaded with fuel at a refinery broke free of its moorings in the Cook Inlet port of Nikiski and drifted until it went aground about a half mile away, the oil company said Thursday.

About five 42-gallon barrels of product were spilled, Coast Guard Petty Officer Eric Chandler said, but three of those barrels were confined to the ship. Only two barrels -- less than 100 gallons -- ended up in Cook Inlet.

The 575-foot Seabulk Pride was moored overnight in Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula when it was struck by an ice floe and broke free at 5:25 a.m., said Sarah Simpson, a spokeswoman for Tesoro Corp. in San Antonio.

"A large piece of ice floating in the channel -- from what they tell me it was traveling pretty fast -- struck the vessel," Simpson said.

Tesoro has a refinery in Nikiski, which is about 80 miles south of Anchorage. The double-hulled tanker was being loaded when it drifted away, she said.

The Coast Guard said the tanker was carrying four kinds of fuel, including 94,951 barrels of a thick residual oil product similar in consistency to asphalt that was not processed at the Tesoro refinery.

In total, the Seabulk Pride was carrying about 116,225 barrels of product, or 4.9 million gallons, when it broke free.

Chandler said there was some damage to the tanker's fuel arm, but otherwise the tanker appeared to be OK. There were 34 people on board the tanker at the time of the accident, two of them pilots. There were no reported injuries.

Petty Officer Steve Harrison of the Coast Guard command center in Juneau said the tanker made a soft landing on silt, adding that that was "a good thing."

The tanker came to rest about a half-mile north of the dock, Simpson said.

According to the company's Web site, the Seabulk Pride is a double-hulled petroleum tanker with a carrying capacity of 342,000 barrels of oil. It is owned by Seabulk Tankers Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The Coast Guard said two tugs that help ships on and off the dock were helping the stranded tanker. Anderson Tug & Barge in Anchorage also was sending a tug, and Seabulk was sending an oil service vessel from Homer.

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