Peninsula Daily News and The Associated Press
PORT ANGELES — The Polar Pioneer has only until Sunday to remain at anchor in Port Angeles Harbor without requesting an extension from the Coast Guard.
Shell Oil Co., spokeswoman Megan Baldino said Monday that the 400-foot-long Polar Pioneer oil rig will be towed by tug to Seattle in a few days, Shell Oil Co.
No day for moving the rig has been announced.
Anchoring in Port Angeles Harbor is free, but a time limit is imposed on how long vessels can stay in the harbor.
That is normally 10 days, but the Polar Pioneer was granted an extension to 30 days by Capt. M.W. “Joe” Raymond, captain of the port for the Puget Sound Sector.
A stay of more than 30 days would also have to be approved by Raymond.
As of Tuesday, Shell Oil Co., had not requested additional time in Port Angeles Harbor, said Coast Guard Chief Sara Mooers of the 13th District.
As of today, the Polar Pioneer has been at anchor in Port Angeles Harbor for 26 days.
The vessel is one of two drill rigs being leased by Royal Dutch Shell, the parent company of Shell Oil Co., slated to be used this summer for exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northern shore.
When the oil rig arrives in Seattle, protesters who don’t want Shell to drill for oil in the Arctic have said they will meet it in kayaks.
Other protesters say they planned to meet the Noble Discoverer — the other drill ship slated for the Arctic — when it arrived at the Port of Everett on Tuesday.
The Noble Discoverer could be seen earlier Tuesday from Port Townsend as it traveled Admiralty Inlet toward Everett.
It eventually will be sent to Seattle’s Terminal 5 to meet up with the Polar Pioneer before both travel north and be in position in June, Baldino said.
The Polar Pioneer is to be taken to Seattle despite a code interpretation by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and a city planning agency that a Port of Seattle terminal is not permitted to host such a rig.
Once there, Foss Maritime of Seattle will prepare the massive semi-submersible rig for an expedition to the Arctic Ocean.
Activists are protesting at the company’s Seattle fuel transfer station, The Associated Press said.
Protesters set up a tall tripod shaped structure at the gate of the Shell facility in Seattle on Tuesday morning.
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Monday approved the multiyear exploration plan in the Chukchi Sea for Shell.
