As the Kulluk continues to be stranded on Sitkilidak Island, the Unified Command held another press conference at the Den'ina Center at 2:15pm on Thursday in downtown Anchorage.

In attendance at the conference was Captain Paul Mehler III of the Coast Guard, Steven Russel the State On-scene coordinator, Sean Churchfield, the Incident Commander for Shell. Duane Dvorak the Liaison for the Borough of Kodiak and Tommy Travis of Noble Drilling.

Sean Churchfield reported that the rig continues to be upright and stable and there are still no traces of oil in the water around the drill rig. Churchfiled also related that yesterday’s assessment by the five-person team provided valuable information that is being used for recovery planning.

Churchfield also gave some information on the damage to the vessel although the details of the damage is incomplete at this stage. It is reported by Churchfield that “some wave damage to the topside of the vessel” had occurred. He also informed that “A number of water-tight hatches have been breached causing water damage to the inside” Some of those doors have since been secured by the salvage team. Other damage included emergency generators.

Churchfield told reporters that at the time of the press conference, the assessments by the team set onto the rig this morning were ongoing. But said that an emergency towing system has been placed on the deck of the rig and that specialized salvage equipment had been ordered and is en-route to the scene. Additionally, oil spill equipment is being deployed as a contigency and vessel-based equipment is on-scene and additional assets are en-route. Staging areas for oil spill equipment have been set up in Old Harbor, Kodiak and Seward.

Captain Mehler of the Coast Guard assured the public that the Coast Guard shared all “their concerns and are committed to see this through.” and that the Coast Guard “wants to see this recovery effort to a safe and swift conclusion.” Captain Mehler pointed out that his role was to make sure that industry,in this case Shell provides sufficient resources during response efforts. He reported that the Cutter Alex Haley is still on-scene and is serving as the on-scene commander, Mehler also noted that “investigators are enroute from the Coast Guard’s Center of Excellence in New Orleans to conduct the coast guard’s marine casualties investigation.” Those investigators will give a full report on the incident and that report will be made public.

During the previous conference yesterday, Churchfield said that the salvage team was “able to check into some of the voids and some of the tanks.” He went on to say that “the tanks they looked at were mainly intact, but they did see one that was sucking and blowing a little bit on one of the void spaces.” It is possible that it could be that this action meant a hull breach of some kind.

Mehler also said yesterday that although they had only preliminary information “What we wanted to know immediately was, were any of the fuel tanks breached, and what we got from that initial report, was no. However there were other voids that they felt they had concern.”

The grounding of the drill rig Kulluk took place within a mile of Refuge Rock, which is a place of great cultural significance to the native people of the island. Unified Command poointed out that they were aware of this fact and said that they would sensitive to that.

It was also reported at the conference that the Nanuq is on its way back to the scene with additional equipment.

When asked about what information is being released and what is not, it was related that only information that is validated will be released.

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