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Subscribe to RSSA Russian tanker hauling fuel across the ice-packed Bering Sea has made it to Alaska's coastline near the town of Nome and crews were assessing ice conditions Friday morning in hopes of making a long-awaited delivery.
The 370-foot tanker, called Renda, has been guided through hundreds of miles of sea ice by the Healy, a Coast Guard icebreaker.
On Friday morning, the vessels were less than 10 miles offshore, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer David Mosely told NBC News.
Mosely said crews were evaluating the ice conditions to ensure a safe transfer of the fuel to shore. Of particular concern is making sure the vessels are in a position to break free from the ice after the completition of the delivery, he said.
Work could begin at daylight, which doesn't come to that part of Alaska until about 1:30 p.m. PST.
Residents of Nome have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the ships. Without the 1.3 million gallons of fuel, the city could run out of heating oil and gasoline by March. Flying supplies in was an option but would have added $3-4 a gallon to the cost of fuel, which already runs $6 a gallon in Nome, population 3,500.
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After all that plus the ship has to return to its home port..it most likely cost more then flying fuel in.
Hint: build bigger storage tanks!
Flying the fuel in would be way more expensive. Do you have any ideas how many flights it would require to bring in the load that the tanker is carrying?
No, Mike277, you got it wrong. Start calculating and you answer your own incorrect statement.
By the way, nice job by the crews from both vessels involved. As an ex-sailor it is nice to see that hard work led to success!
BRAVO! I am pleasantly surprised. Good job and great journey.
Don't they pump oil there? Drill baby drill... Oh thats right, its pump there sold on the open market so we can buy it back at much higher prices......
bryan, do you know of any refineries in Nome?
Why don't you fill your car's tank with North Slope crude and drive around a bit?
Bryan. There aren't any refineries in Alaska, and your car doesn't run on crude oil it runs on gasoline!!!
no, we do have several. Koch Industries ring a bell? We pay big bucks a gallon 3.74 gal today. No competition is a good thing. What De beers has done to the diamond market demonstrates the mirror of the oil industry. How many people do know could tell you about De-beers creation of a market of a Ferrel and easily obtainable resource into multi-billion dollar industry. Reminds me of the big tulip bulb bubble in the Netherlands a few century's back.
Actually the US is the biggest exporter of refined fuel..
Ed-
Too bad we imported $27.3 billion worth of oil in the month of November. We may export a tiny fraction, but we import a huge amount.
Are we the biggest or did we just do record exports in 2011? Here's an interesting headline about those refined fuel exports:
Rising fuel exports keep U.S. gasoline prices from falling
And this from December:
U.S. exports record amount of refined fuels in 2011
From the Anchorage Daily News:
Read more here: #storylink=cpy
Read more here: #storylink=cpy
Nome saved by the Ruskies. $6 bucks a gal in Nome? Whoa. Musta gotta love living there.
I wonder if there are any anti-govenment conservatives there? After all it was a US Coastguard ice breaker that got the Russian ship though.
Unforeseen occurences befell them all. Critical times hard to deal with, will be here.
I would just like to make the fact known that without the Coast Guard Cutter Healy this would not have been possible. However, the Healy is the only functional Coast Guard Ice breaker. With offshore drilling beginning in Northern Alaska and ice filled waters, if an oil well rupture occurs again the Coast Guard will not be able to respond due to budget cuts and financial issues. The Coast Guard currently has two ice breakers, however they are in dry docks because they are no longer functional and are not being repaired to lack of finances. All in all, the Coast Guard needs more money to expand their icebreaking fleet as activities increase in ice filled waters.
Coast Guard has big brass balls.