But in that half-hour, Shell estimates that the 14-thousand ton oil rig travelled a distance of approximately 100 yards. The incident finally ended when a Shell tugboat moved into position and stopped it.
Some witnesses in Dutch Harbor claim the vessel came uncomfortably close to shore, and only stopped after it made a "soft grounding".
The company sent a Remotely-Operated-Vehicle, or R.O.V. beneath the waves on Saturday night to inspect the hull of the vessel for damage. The unmanned sub found none.
The Coast Guard is investigating the matter. Groundings falll into a category of mishaps known as "Marine Casualty Incidents". Those are incidents which must, by law, be reported to the Coast Guard. Shell did precisely that: promptly reported the incident. Now the Coast Guard wants to know if the vessel ended-up going aground.
Environmentalists say the incident underlines the risk of drilling in the Arctic. They say that drilling in the pristine environment of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas is simply too dangerous. Greenpeace said, over the weekend, that if Shell briefly lost control of the vessel in the relatively safe waters of Unalaska Bay, that does not speak well of its capabilities in the notoriously treacherous waters of the Arctic Ocean.
But in an interview with KTUU-TV on Sunday, Shell Vice President of Alaska Operations Pete Slaiby said that was not a valid criticism. He says that in the relatively confined space of the bay, Shell is forced to use a single-point anchoring system. According to Slaiby, when Shell's rigs are placed in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas this summer, they will use a highly secure, 360-degree, 8-point anchoring system.
That is not possible in Dutch Harbor because the long lines from 8-point anchoring -- running thousands of feet in all directions -- would interfere with commerce.
But the World Wildlife Fund disputes Slaiby's assertion. They claim that even the 8-point anchoring system may not be sufficient.
The organization cited an article last year from a New Zealand newspaper. The "Taranaki Daily News". It was about the very same drill-rig, "The Noble Discoverer" -- the one that went adrift in Dutch Harbor over the weekend.
In an article entitled, "Twinkle, Twinkle Damaged Drillship" reporter Rob Maetzig wrote that,"The $180,000-a-day... Noble Discoverer looks destined to spend the winter doing nothing more than providing a nightly light show in the waters off New Plymouth"
He reported that on April 26th of last year, "The veteran drillship was so badly damaged in a storm off the Taranaki coast that it will be unable to return to drilling operations any time soon".
The article went on to say that, "While only minor damage happened to the vessel during the... storm, other equipment such as the mooring system and drilling equipment were damaged when anchor lines snapped."
But Shell spokesman Curtis Smith disputes the newspaper's account. He said that during the incident, in which the 8-point-anchoring system was in use, only one anchor failed. Smith says that the rest were pulled from the sea floor by the crew so they could reposition the vessel and move to less stormy seas.
The "Disco", at the time, was operated by a company called "Shell Todd", a joint venture between Shell Petroleum and Todd Oil Services. The story says the drill ship rolled heavily in 7-meter-seas (22 feet) with 114 people aboard. The article does not allege that anyone was injured in the incident. It also says the wellhead -- at the ocean bottom -- was not damaged.
Meanwhile Shell asserts that its presents in Alaska's Arctic will produce tangible benefits. In fact, the company argues, it already has.
It cites an incident in December 2010 in the Aleutian Islands. At that time, the ocean-going freighter "MV Golden Seas" lost power in 30-foot-seas and began to drift toward Atka Island. The ship was loaded with hundreds of thousands of bunker fuel, which could have spilled had it foundered on the rocks there.
