AK Dispatch- A maritime company that for at least two decades has provided tugboats to escort loaded oil tankers out of Prince William Sound, is no longer competing for the contract to provide that service, causing alarm among observers who don’t want a repeat of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
With Florida-based Crowley Marine out of the running for the contract, at least one candidate remains: Edison Chouest, the company whose tug, the 360-foot Aiviq, towed Shell’s drilling rig Kulluk before lines snapped and the rig wrecked off the Alaska coast in late 2012.
“We are competing,” said Roger White, with Edison Chouest in Louisiana. “We are a company that looks forward to having some additional success in Alaska.”
