A company that operated a drill ship in the Arctic, under contract with Shell, has struck a deal with prosecutors and says it will plead guilty to environmental and maritime crimes.
As part of the agreement, Noble Drilling U.S. LLC will plead guilty to eight felony counts and pay $12.2 million in fines and community service payments, according to a statement from the Alaska U.S. District Attorney’s Office.
Noble is accused of knowingly not maintaining accurate records, including an oil record book and a ballast water record book. In order to maintain stability, ships fill their ballast tanks with water, which has the potential to contain other organisms.
“By design, water ballast tanks should only contain uncontaminated seawater,” the statement says. “Noble pumped oily skimmer tank fluids and deck water with a sheen into several ballast tanks on the Noble Discoverer.”
Noble is also accused with “knowingly and willfully failing to notify the U.S. Coast Guard of hazardous conditions aboard the drill ship Noble Discoverer,” according to the District Attorney’s office.
The company operated the Noble Discoverer and the mobile drill unit Kulluk as part of Shell’s exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea in 2012. Shell says it didn’t learn about the problem until it was alerted by the Coast Guard after drilling was completed.
Other admissions by Noble include:
- Failing to log that the Noble Discoverer’s oil content meter audible alarm did not work.
- The company had trouble managing the bilge and wastewater that accumulated in the Noble Discoverer’s engine room, which caused problems. As a solution, Noble created a makeshift barrel and pump system to discharge the water, but didn’t process it through the required pollution prevention equipment required by law.
- Negligently discharging machinery space bilge water from the Noble Discoverer into Broad Bay, Unalaska on July 22, 2012. While anchored in Dutch Harbor, the drill ship’s bilge holding tank 27S overflowed and went overboard, which created a sheen in Broad Bay.
In 2012, the Kulluk – which was not self-propelled and had to be towed — and the Noble Discoverer made “several” U.S. port calls in Washington and Alaska on their way to the Shell drilling site off the coast of Alaska. After leaving the drill site, the Kulluk broke free from its tow in a severe storm and ran aground off the coast of Unalaska. The Noble Discoverer had to be dead-ship towed from Dutch Harbor to Seward because of failures with its main engine and other equipment.
Noble must also implement an environmental compliance plan, and will be placed on probation for four years.
The guilty plea agreement was publicly released Monday, and at a presser held by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, it was announced that the judge overseeing the case will now have to set a date for the arraignment.