PORT FOURCHON, LA – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Saturday celebrated the Christening of the Arctic-class offshore service vessel Aiviq. This state of the art, 360-foot icebreaker was commissioned by Shell and built by American workers in LaRose, Louisiana in over 2 million man-hours and is slated to support exploration in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. It created or supported jobs in all 50 states and is capable of towing an aircraft carrier.

“Today’s christening of the icebreaker Aiviq is a major milestone in Alaska’s responsible energy development,” Murkowski said. “The Aiviq is an engineering marvel – and we expect great things of it in the near future. I hope that people from Washington to Alaska recognize this vessel as an example of the commitment which Shell, Edison Chouest Offshore, and others have made to national energy security – something with which all Americans are deeply concerned today. Today, we saw one of the great things that can happen when American energy resources are made available and American ingenuity is unleashed.”