FOLLOWUP: Shell oil rig Polar Pioneer now on its way here

| Port of Seattle | West Seattle news

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(Thanks again to Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce for permission to publish webcam images these past few weeks)
2:19 AM: As expected, the Shell oil drilling platform Polar Pioneer has left Port Angeles, headed for West Seattle’s Terminal 5, despite the city interpretation that it shouldn’t be docked there under terms of the Port of Seattle‘s current permit (previous update here). We noticed it on the move just after 1:30 am, via MarineTraffic.com, and just after 2 am, as shown in the screengrab above (in which PP is in the distance at right, the ferry Coho docked at left), the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce webcam showed it heading eastward. Accompanying it right now, all at about 6 knots, are four Foss vessels (fleet info here): 106-foot Andrew Foss, 155-foot Garth Foss, 155-foot Lindsey Foss, and 98-foot Pacific Star. We’ll be updating as they approach. This chart we found puts T-5 about 70 nautical miles from Port Angeles.

SIDE NOTE: Almost exactly four years ago, all eyes were on another platform arriving in West Seattle waters, the SBX (Sea-Based X-Band Radar), which came in under its own power late May 10th, 2011, for work at Vigor. Polar Pioneer is considerably taller – 25 percent taller, we noted here last month.

7:33 AM: The Polar Pioneer and accompanying vessels are about to pass Port Townsend, at about 3.5 knots. That’s about halfway between here and where they started six hours ago.

9:09 AM: Thanks to Jason Mihok for sending the photo above, as the vessels passed PT. MarineTraffic.com now shows the USCG vessel Osprey right behind them.

NOON: Now three Coast Guard vessels are following the Polar Pioneer and the four Foss tugs; they’re now in the Kingston vicinity, per MT.

Curtissimo May 14, 2015 (7:01 am)

Welcome to the neighborhood.

puget_sound_jobs May 14, 2015 (7:06 am)

I have the day off, a kayak and I support oil exploration. Are there any groups in the area that will be there in support of the oil rig? I’d like to join them.

Les May 14, 2015 (7:54 am)

I hope the protesters don’t use any kayaks that are made from any oil byproducts such as plastic or fiberglass that would seem hippocratical to me

WSB May 14, 2015 (8:07 am)

PSJ – Not that we have heard of or seen. If anyone knows of any such plan, please let us know either here or via editor@westseattleblog.com so we can include it in the ongoing coverage. And if not – start one yourself and let us know where to tell people to meet you.
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Les – As has been pointed out in virtually every comment thread related to this situation, as well as in our reporting (and others’) on those who have spoken at Port meetings in the past three months, the demonstrators/opponents are not targeting all oil use. Not even all Arctic oil production. They are very specifically against Arctic offshore drilling. – TR

cj May 14, 2015 (8:09 am)

So if the lease is invalid why are they still incoming? Laws don’t apply to Shell?

JD May 14, 2015 (8:35 am)

CJ – The platform is coming because FOSS has the contract with port and at this time the contract is still valid. For the Port to suddenly say sorry you can’t use this area you leased would likely be a breach of contract. The Port (IMO) is in a tough spot after the vote they took yesterday of who they want to get into a legal battle with whether it be the city over land use or FOSS for breach of contract. Either way though until the contract is terminated FOSS will likely continue with the stated plans.

Jim May 14, 2015 (8:39 am)

WSB: I disagree about the specificity of the protests. Most if not all of what I have heard from the protesters has been very general, having to do with a different “Energy Future,” with global warming, with leaving carbon in the ground. If not offshore drilling, then drilling where? Do they support fracking? Do they support coal and oil trains from Montana and North Dakota (far from the shore)? Do they support Keystone? Tar sands? Middle-east oil dependence?

I think it’s our lifestyle they are protesting and that’s why the hypocrisy accusations keeping coming up.

onion May 14, 2015 (8:41 am)

…

Frank May 14, 2015 (8:42 am)

Let the drilling and exploring off the Washington and Oregon coasts begin! Why do you all think they are so dead set on Seattle? There are many ports between here and Alaska they could of chosen.

Smitty May 14, 2015 (9:14 am)

Well, I was wrong about their arrival timing. I thought for sure they would come in around 2 in the morning to avoid the hippies.

Interesting.

WSB May 14, 2015 (9:19 am)

I would imagine they wanted to time it so they were in the busiest waters in broad daylight. While the PP has lights (we’ve been looking at it on the Port Angeles cam in all dayparts these past few weeks), you might still imagine somebody bumping into it in the dark. So leaving Port Angeles at 1:30 put them in Puget Sound as full morning light arrived. Remember that also there is an enforcement zone around it and the Coast Guard will be out monitoring it; a USCG vessel is following it now, in fact, which wasn’t the case for those first few hours. We just talked to SPD, meantime, which was part of a briefing today, and will be including that in our upcoming “what to expect” story …

Ray May 14, 2015 (10:06 am)

WSB,

Thanks for the ongoing coverage and the link to http://www.marinetraffic.com/. Looking forward to some great pictures, assuming the weather holds up.

Jeff May 14, 2015 (10:21 am)

WSB… Your defense of the protesters is mealy-mouthed nonsense. While a small group may have a narrow our specific message, their messaging in the aggregate is not narrow our specific.

Good grief, stop taking sides and simply provide journalism with integrity.

WSB May 14, 2015 (10:27 am)

I don’t think anyone’s ever called me “mealy-mouthed” before, Jeff, thanks! Always something new. Sorry, but we’re not taking sides – we don’t do that, unlike some other media organizations. I’ve been covering this for months now and what I wrote is the truth. We truth-squad in comments when we can, as they are indexed too and we would be remiss to let obvious errors go unchallenged. – Tracy

wscommuter May 14, 2015 (10:26 am)

@Jeff – you’re way off base and remarkably inaccurate in saying the WSB is biased. Their coverage of this issue has been the most comprehensive and fair of any of the local media. Ease up, dude.

Mel May 14, 2015 (10:36 am)

I hope no one here is supporting oil drilling and exploration unless they have first hand knowledge of it because they grew up in an area where drilling and refineries were prevalent, were exposed as juveniles, the most sensitive of the population, and remain ill for the rest of their lives due to that exposure. Otherwise, it’s an uninformed opinion. To be informed and to show your support of this “harmless” activity, move yourself and your small children to Houston, TX, particularly to the Pasadena region. There are lots of jobs, housing and it’s much cheaper to live there.

ChefJoe May 14, 2015 (10:40 am)

I dunno, when I listened to Amber testify to the port commissioners about our society piercing out the life blood of Mother Earth, it sounded about oil use in general.

ChefJoe May 14, 2015 (10:45 am)

The video’s not up from that meeting, but the audio (although the links are slightly jumbled up from which parts they say are linked) is available.

https://www.portseattle.org/About/Commission/Meetings/Pages/default.aspx

G May 14, 2015 (10:46 am)

Jeff,

I agree that the environmental movement is riddled with hypocrisy, opportunists and fear-mongering, but the WSB has been remarkably fair. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the LA Times, newspaper that purports to be a citadel for free speech but refuses to print anything – even a letter to the editor – that is even vaguely skeptical of global warming. Talk about a frightening trend in this country. I’m appreciative that the WSB allows pretty broad-ranging exchange of ideas on this subject.

Guy Olson May 14, 2015 (10:50 am)

Thank you West Seattle Blog for the coverage. You folks do such a great job and are a treasure to the city and community.

Jim Price May 14, 2015 (11:13 am)

Mel, I also grew up near an oil refinery. My father was an engineer for Exxon and we lived near the Baytown refinery (the largest in the continental U.S.).

I have experienced no adverse health effects. My parents are still alive and healthy in their late ’70s. They are vegetarians who exercise a lot, so this may have something to do with it.

My point is that exposure to hydrocarbon pollution is potentially dangerous, but there is no guarantee that living near a refinery will harm your children.

That being said, I personally believe that all fossil fuels should be far more expensive than they are, to reflect their environmental and political costs.

We spend around $50 billion each year defending oil shipping lanes during peacetime (the cost is far higher when you factor in Middle East wars). Subsidies for oil exploration and refining (and corn subsidies earmarked for ethanol) cost billions more.

A carbon tax would help make alternative energy sources more competitive and reduce carbon emissions. This has proven to be politically impossible at the moment, so pushing for the removal of all energy subsidies might be a better short-term strategy, as there is some bi-partisan support.

Protesting individual drilling rigs at a local level seems fairly pointless, although I suppose it raises awareness. The $500 per day fine is probably quite humorous to Shell executives.

cj May 14, 2015 (12:10 pm)

Wow Mel, I used to live there too back in the mid to late 80s. We used to say Pasadeener where the air is greener. Seriously bad pollution.

Ray May 14, 2015 (12:34 pm)

For those that are interested, the convoy of vessels is parallel to Mountlake Terrance, and coming up on Shoreline as of 12:33pm. Probably about an hour until the reach the waterfront.

WSB May 14, 2015 (12:37 pm)

Thanks, we’ll be launching a new story as soon as it comes into view from west Alki. Tips/photos always appreciated – text if it’s most expedient: 206-293-6302

Paula May 14, 2015 (12:58 pm)

I live on Pigeon Point, 3 blocks from the tip of the hill. The Shell Polar Pioneer drilling behemoth will be in my face, by both location and beliefs. I thought this was a one time event, but apparently the plan is for it to be stored at T5 8 months of every year this is allowed to go on. This agreement was done as secretively as possible. I am mad! – at Foss, the Port, the City of Seattle and Shell. I’m on the side of the Earth and future generations of all living things.

jwright May 14, 2015 (1:00 pm)

The “if you are against off-shore Arctic drilling you are not allowed to use anything made with oil!” mantra is ridiculous. Some resource extraction activity is too fraught with potential risk to pursue. The problem is that the financial benefits are all realized by the company doing the extraction but the risks of an ecological disaster are externalized to everyone else in the world. If the price of oil goes up a few bucks a barrel because a potential oil field in a sensitive area is off limits, so be it. In fact, as Jim Price points out, the more oil costs, the more there is an economic incentive to conserve and find alternatives. And being against drilling in the Arctic Ocean while still driving a car and using plastic does not make me a hypocrite.

PhysicsLady May 14, 2015 (1:26 pm)

What are all the coast guard vessels doing? Protecting the oil rig from protestors?

WSB May 14, 2015 (1:41 pm)

There is a certain distance at which no one is allowed to approach the rigs by court order while they’re on the move (I will be looking that up, it’s been a while since we reported that).

Jim Price May 14, 2015 (3:15 pm)

https://i.imgur.com/lYNy7KP.jpg

Hippie, Hippocratic and I'm sure occasionally Hypocritical May 14, 2015 (3:17 pm)

Les, a Hypocrite is not Hippocratical unless she is a physician who is hypocritically “doing harm” having taken the Hippocratic oath. But, a Hippie, Hippocratic, hypocrite may indeed put her kayak on an SUV, drive it to the shore and protest an oil rig. But thank God that in America it all somehow works. I’m sure the patriots sat for a spot of tea after returning from the Boston Tea Party.

Jim Price May 14, 2015 (3:22 pm)

Here it is in Elliott Bay:
https://i.imgur.com/lYNy7KP.jpg

Paul Wulterkens May 14, 2015 (3:41 pm)

If derailment is the problem then the main goal is to prevent the derailment, or, keep the rail cars from tipping over.
A document by the rail industry tells the owners of tracks how to maintain the rails. It runs to 22 pages and covers all kinds of problems with tracks being out of plum, rail ties wearing out, switches not functioning, etc. (https://www.cn.ca/-/…/industry-track-inspectio…)
Scan this document and gain comfort from the fact that there is really no mystery as to why trains derail. But don’t get too comfortable, for if you think about what you’ve read, you see that the problem is there are a lot of things that go wrong with rails, and there are 150,000 miles of track to inspect. With more and heavier trains traversing a track the frequency of inspections has to go up.
The cost of inspection, whether by human inspectors or by higher technology dilutes profit. In other words, inspections decrease derailments and thereby save the railroad money. But, on average, the derailments have cost less than the cost of added inspections.
It is akin to the healthcare problem – how much and how often should we get diagnostic tests and who should pay?
The railroad economists have worked this out.
The Federal Railroad Administration, that federal agency empowered to make and enforce the rules about inspections, would have quite an argument from the railroads if it ordered more inspections. The FRA needs pressure from the people it should be working for – namely us.
Let them hear from you at http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/enforce-railroad-health?source=s.fwd&r_by=1718159

JB May 14, 2015 (4:02 pm)

Long after the rig and her sister boats have left Seattle, we will still be dealing with the impacts of our Port and City leaders and their questionable business ethics.

I find it interesting that the Mayor is “suddenly” aghast at the deal the Port made with local company Foss. Given the way business and contracts work, there were probably months of conversations and negotiations between Foss and the Port before the contract was approved in January. I find it incredibly hard to believe that our Mayor and his team didn’t know what was going on. Was this his plan all along? Let Foss invest dollars in preparing T5, and then at the very last minute, come in like an environmental super hero and say oh no you don’t to the Port? What about the way the Port commissioners rolled over at Tuesday’s hearing? They entered in to a contract with Foss knowing full well that Shell was coming.

Whatever you think about Shell, Foss is a local, family owned company, that our neighbors, friends and family work at. Foss has been a vital part of the Seattle maritime community for a long time.They are honoring the contract and agreement that they made with their customer. That’s called integrity (wish I could say the same for our local govt.) Some will say it’s called money. Money and integrity aren’t always mutually exclusive. Why would anyone enter into a contract to do business with the port or the city from this point on?

Good luck with your re-election Mr Mayor. What’s that you see in the distance? That’s the support of the business community riding off into the sunset.

Will the last one on the Seattle water front turn off the lights…

vanessa May 14, 2015 (4:26 pm)

great photo. would love to see what’s below the water level.
Is some one actually steering that big thing, is it like a ship or is it just being towed? things that make you go hmmmm….?

WSB May 14, 2015 (4:35 pm)

Vanessa, it’s being towed. It was brought across the Pacific on a heavy-lift ship that actually carried it, but it was floated off that ship in Port Angeles and four Foss tugboats have brought it here. I believe I’ve read that it can self-propel – the SBX platform I keep comparing it to certainly can – but have to check the specs (which I have linked to the first instance of its name here, if anyone’s interested) – TR

miws May 14, 2015 (4:41 pm)

Jeff, please define “narrow our specific”. You used it twice in one sentence.

Mike

ChefJoe May 14, 2015 (5:03 pm)

I believe it has thrusters but, like nearly all the big boats you see come into port, they are brought in by tugs and local captains who are familiar with the waterway here.