PORT ANGELES, Wash. -- An Arctic drilling rig that was part of Royal Dutch Shell's abandoned plans to explore for oil in Alaska's Chukchi Sea is expected to depart the Port Angeles, Washington harbor for Europe Wednesday.
The Peninsula Daily News reports the giant oil drilling platform, the Polar Pioneer, has been welded to a ship owned by a company from the Netherlands.
A representative of the U.S. division of that company, Dockwise Shipping, says it is ready to depart on Wednesday.
Robb Erickson says the 902-foot semi-submersible heavy-lift ship will take the Polar Pioneer to Norway by following the coast to the Strait of Magellan at the tip of South America. From there it will cross the Atlantic.
The Dockwise Vanguard is the largest ship of its type in the world and can lift more than 120,000 tons of cargo.