Polar Pioneer left the Port Angeles Harbor on Dec. 24; Ship’s departure was delayed

Published 12:01 am Sunday, December 27, 2015

PORT ANGELES — The Polar Pioneer, which dominated the Port Anheles Harbor since Oct. 28, has left for Norway.

The 355-foot-tall oil platform left aboard the MV Dockwise Vanguard heavy lift ship at about 9:20 p.m. Thursday night.

The departure date was not announced before the ship left. It initially was scheduled to depart Monday, but the departure was delayed each day as the ship’s crew and local welders worked to compete the job of fastening the oil platform to the deck, said officials for the U.S. division of Dockwise Shipping of the Netherlands last week.

The ship carrying the oil rig is headed for Olen, Norway.

The 902-foot semi-submersible heavy-lift ship will take the Polar Pioneer to Norway by following the American coastlines to the Strait of Magellan at the tip of South America before crossing the Atlantic, officials said.

The Polar Pioneer initially visited Port Angeles in April to prepare for a summer of drilling for oil in the Chukchi Sea off the Alaskan coast.

The rig returned to Port Angeles on Oct. 28 to offload equipment after Royal Dutch Shell — which had leased the Polar Pioneer — gave up on Arctic drilling.

Transocean Ltd. of Zug, Switzerland, which owns the oil platform, donated about 15 tons of food to local food banks and soup kitchens earlier this month in preparation for the trip.

The Dockwise Vanguard is the largest ship of its type in the world and can lift more than 120,000 tons of cargo.

Dockwise also owns a second heavy-lift ship that recently visited Port Angeles Harbor.

The smaller 738-foot-long semi-submersible MV Blue Marlin loaded the drill ship Noble Discoverer on its deck Dec. 11 and departed Dec. 14.

Port officials have said the Noble Discoverer is headed to the West Pacific.