Philippe Morin
Northern News Services
Monday, May 07, 2007

TUKTOYAKTUK - Workers helping to refurbish the Kulluk rig near Tuktoyaktuk were ready and packed to leave when the ice road closed on May 2.

Jim Guthrie, who is manager of Kulluk Arctic Services, said on April 30 it was only a matter of days before the workers' camp must move.

"The weather turned real cold, we've had -20C below at night and -10C during the daytime, so the road between Tuk and the rig was still in good shape," he said

Guthrie had said "right now we're optimistic we could keep it going as late as the 7th, maybe even the 10th and that's optimistic. But, Mother Nature can always change that in 48 hours," he added.

And so it did. On May 2 the winter road closed due to a sudden surge of overflow near the Cockney Channel.

The Kulluk rig, which is currently moored 80 kilometres east of Tuktoyaktuk, was purchased by Dutch Shell PLC in 2005, for an undisclosed sum, but is a multi-million dollar project.

It is now in the middle of a large-scale renovation project, before it sails to Alaska in August.

Last March, an ice road was created to access the rig, and a camp and airstrip was also installed nearby.

About 90 workers were aboard the Kulluk every day, during the peak work season.

When the ice road was only days from closure, Guthrie said it was important the company clean the site completely, to avoid garbage falling into the ocean.

He added contractors had already cleaned the ice by using graders and loaders to remove dirty snow.

The company planned to work right until the ice

road closed.

"If we suddenly found the ice road was deteriorating, we could have everything out in one day," Guthrie said.