Changing ice conditions clear way for historic fuel delivery by barge to Alaska's North Slope
1st time company brings bulk fuel by barge to North Slope; 8 million litres of fuel delivered
An Alaska company says changing ice conditions in the North Slope area have allowed it to make a bulk fuel delivery to Prudhoe Bay by barge for the first time.
KTUU-TV reported Thursday that Colville Inc. says that the single trip carried 8million litresof fuel.
The fuel took 70 hours to unload before it was moved to a tank farm in the community of Deadhorse.
A statement by Colville says that fuel for North Slope oil field operations is typically delivered over land by trucks pulling 16-metretankers from a refinery in Valdez to Deadhorse, a roughly 1,368-kilometre trip.
Colville says it makes 2,000 of those trips each year, each hauling nearly37,854 litres of diesel.