EVERETT — The companion floating oil rig to the Polar Pioneer now anchored in Port Angeles Harbor will pass up the Strait of Juan de Fuca next week and head to Everett.
The Noble Discoverer will stop at the Port of Everett to load and unload cargo, a port spokeswoman told The Daily Herald of Everett, a sister newspaper of the Peninsula Daily News.
The port hasn’t received any berth requests, so no further details are available, she said.
The Noble Discoverer is coming to Puget Sound as part of Royal Dutch Shell’s plans to do exploratory drilling in Arctic waters this summer. It is part of a fleet to be parked in Puget Sound in coming weeks that is targeted by environmental activists.
The energy company is still trying to get permits required to drill in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast.
The vessel coming to Everett has a 175-foot-tall oil derrick, and it can drill oil wells 20,000 feet below ground and in 1,000-foot-deep water, according to the website of its owner, Noble Corp., a London-based offshore drilling company.
By comparison, Transocean Ltd.’s Polar Pioneer in Port Angeles Harbor is 400 feet long and towers more than 350 feet, becoming the tallest vessel ever to visit Port Angeles Harbor.
It has been in Port Angeles since April 17 when it came aboard a heavy-lift, semi-submersible cargo ship. The rig, also leased to Shell Oil Co., Royal Dutch Shell’s U.S. subsidiary, has since been floated off the ship.
The company was charged with several felonies related to operating the Noble Discoverer while drilling for Shell off Alaska in 2012. Last year, Noble pleaded guilty to eight felony charges, agreed to pay $12.2 million in fines and community service payments, adopt an environmental compliance plan and was placed on four years probation, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Several ships contracted by Shell to support the rig also will use the Port of Everett, she said.
The ships are the Aiviq, Ross Chouest, Harvey Supporter, Harvey Champion, Harvey Explorer and Sisuaq. The Aiviq is now anchored in Port Angeles.
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Writer Dan Catchpole of The Daily Herald in Everett contributed to this report.
