A Russian tanker is preparing to off-load more than a million gallons of diesel and gasoline to fuel

(14 Jan 2012) HEADLINE: Raw Video: Tanker inches closer to Alaska
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CAPTION: A Russian tanker is preparing to off-load more than a million gallons of diesel and gasoline to fuel-starved Nome. (Jan. 14)
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[Location - Date:Near Nome Alaska]
[Source:DIVIDS]
[VO:Aerial of ship]

STORYLINE:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) _ A Russian tanker is preparing to off-load more than a million gallons (3.8 million liters) of diesel and gasoline to fuel-starved Nome, but first it must position itself near the Alaska town's iced-in harbor to send that cargo through a mile (1.6 kilometer)-long hose without a spill.
Led by a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker, the vessel plowed through hundreds of miles (kilometers) of Bering Sea ice to reach Nome. It was holding steady about eight miles (13 kilometers) off shore Friday night.
The problem is Nome's harbor is iced-in, preventing the 370-foot (113-meter) tanker Renda from getting to the city dock. It will have to moor offshore to transfer its 1.3-million-gallon (4.92-million-liter) payload across the ice and to fuel headers that feed a nearby tank farm.
The Coast Guard Cutter Healy can only get so close to shore because of shallow waters.
Officials want to place the Renda "where there's enough water around it that the Healy can then break the Renda free once the delivery is done," Coast Guard spokesman David Mosley said.
"Out of the safety of the vessels, they're taking the time they need to evaluate where to put the Renda so the operation to shore can be done safely, but then so we can break them free and get them on their way afterward," he said.
For days, operations officials have looked at how best to lay the segmented fuel hose across the shore-fast ice for the transfer. The idea is to get the tanker as close to the harbor as possible to reduce the chance of a spill.
There has been a lot of anxious waiting since the ship left Russia in mid-December. It picked up diesel fuel in South Korea before traveling to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, where it took on unleaded gasoline.
Late Thursday, the vessels stopped offshore and began planning the transfer.
A fall storm prevented Nome from getting a fuel delivery by barge in November. Without the tanker delivery, supplies of diesel fuel, gasoline and home heating fuel in Nome are expected to run out in March and April, well before a barge delivery again in late May or June.
Nome Mayor Denise Michels sat in her car Friday morning in record-breaking low temperatures and gazed past the harbor entrance. Her eyes focused on the lights coming from the tanker and the icebreaker just before dawn.

APTN STORY NUMBER: 723437

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