The U.S. Coast Guard is responding Friday to engine failures aboard a tugboat towing one of the drilling units used by Shell Oil in the Beaufort Sea this year, a day after news broke that a drillship from the project had been cited by the Coast Guard in Seward.
Coast Guard spokesperson Petty Officer 1st Class David Mosley says the tugboat Aiviq reported the problems about 50 miles south of Kodiak, while towing the mobile drilling unit Kulluk.
“The crew of the Aiviq reported that they were able to restart one of the (ship’s) engines and is currently awaiting assistance from the crews of the response vessels Guardsman and the Nanuq, which departed Seward and are expected on-scene early Friday afternoon,” Mosley wrote in a Friday statement on the incident.