SHELL FINES

TT. A US Coast Guard report has concluded that authorities should consider hitting Shell with penalties over the grounding of an oil drilling rig in the Gulf of Alaska in 2012.
The 152-page report, released late on Thursday night, blamed poor risk assessment and management as reasons why the Kulluk broke away from its tow vessel in late December 2012 and ran aground four days later on Sitkalidak Island, near Kodiak.
It also stated that Alaska's tax laws influenced the decision to tow the Kulluk to Seattle. Shell believed the drill vessel would have qualified as taxable property on January 1, 2013, if it was still in Alaskan waters.
The report came 10 months after a Coast Guard hearing in Anchorage into the causes of the accident. The Kulluk broke free of a custom-made vessel, called the Aviq, that was towing it during a storm. Numerous attempts by the Aviq and the Coast Guard to bring the Kulluk under control failed. The report stated that the master of the Aviq emailed the tow master with his concerns nine days before the incident.
"To be blunt, I believe that this length of tow, at this time of year, in this location, with our current routing guarantees an ass kicking," he wrote.