An Icy Alaska Delay

For weeks a convoy of 15 giant barges, each longer than a football field and carrying vital equipment for construction of the Alaska oil pipeline, had waited at anchor for strong winds to blow ice away from the shore line near Point Barrow. That would create a narrow navigation channel, enabling ice-free sailing to the pipeline's northern terminus at Prudhoe Bay. The winds finally came, and the convoy moved out. But the winds shifted unexpectedly and began blowing ice back into the path of the fleet. Last week the convoy was forced to retreat 30 miles to avoid being frozen in for the long Arctic winter.

For the trouble-plagued, 798-mile pipeline project, the debilitating race against wind and weather was the most serious setback yet. The barges contained thousands of tons of supplies--part of a $540 million cargo of fuel, cranes, transformers, sections of tall prefabricated buildings--too heavy or expensive to be moved by truck. There is a slim chance that the fleet could still get through--about 20% according to weather experts. Barring that, the delay may well mean the first trickle of oil will not begin flowing south to the deep-water port of Valdez on schedule in the summer of 1977. The expected flow of just under 2 million bbl. daily could be delayed until well into 1978.

It was not the first trouble encountered by the barges since they left Puget Sound in July for the 3,500-mile voyage. Of the 47 vessels in the original convoy--the largest in peacetime maritime history--ten made it through to Prudhoe. Another 19 turned back for southern Alaska ports: they encountered the worst ice conditions in 77 years. One barge was beached and is being repaired. The 15 that turned back last week contained, among other items, modular buildings, without which oil production cannot begin.

Oilmen for the three companies involved in the sealift--Atlantic Richfield, Standard Oil Company of Ohio and British Petroleum--have maintained that air and overland shipments of some equipment would allow at least a trickle of oil to flow on schedule, regardless of this year's ice. But last week's delay threw a shroud over even that promise, and any major sealift probably will have to wait until next year. If nothing else, the professional meteorologists used by the oil companies might learn a lesson from the Eskimos. Last summer they reportedly predicted that ice would prevent passage to Prudhoe.

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