Alaska oil rig stranded in high seas and strong winds The goal was to get salvagers aboard the Kulluk and the ship refloated, Mehler said. Mehler said a team of about 500 people was working on a plan, "with many more coming." A Shell official said the drilling rig was built with a double-sided hull of reinforced steel that is 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) thick. It recently had undergone $292 million in improvements before being put into service for a short time this summer in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's north coast. It was being towed to Seattle for maintenance last week when it separated from a towing vessel south of Kodiak Island. Repeated attempts to maintain towing lines were unsuccessful as a severe storm passed through the area. By Monday night, tow boats guided the rig to a place where it would cause the least environmental damage and cut it loose. It grounded off the southeast side of uninhabited Sitkalidak Island, which is near the larger Kodiak Island in the gulf. Congressman Ed Markey, the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, expressed his concerns in a statement Tuesday. "Oil companies keep saying they can conquer the Arctic, but the Arctic keeps disagreeing with the oil companies," Markey said. Drilling expansion could prove disastrous for this sensitive environment. Sean Churchfield, operations manager for Shell Alaska, said once the situation is under control, an investigation will be conducted into the cause. He did not know whether the findings would be made public. The Coast Guard said it would be investigating and would make its findings public. Authorities haven't been able to land people on the Shell rig Kulluk for a more extensive look because of the challenging marine winter weather, Coast Guard Captain Paul Mehler said. Based on observations from planes flying over the site yesterday, the rig is stable and there don't appear to be any leaks, Mehler said during a news conference yesterday. "The Kulluk is sound," Mehler said. There is no sign of a breach of hull. There is no sign of oil. The rig was stranded on the coast of Sitkalidak Island, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of the town of Kodiak, according to a Coast Guard statement earlier yesterday. The Kulluk has approximately 139,000 gallons of ultra-low- sulfur diesel and 12,000 gallons of combined lube oil and hydraulic fluid on board. An initial Coast Guard helicopter flight over the grounded rig didn't detect any visible sign of a spill. More inspections were planned, while the approximately 250 people involved in response efforts were hampered by the winds and high seas, according to the statement. The Kulluk was en route to Seattle for repairs after drilling off the Alaska coast. The rig had been adrift and then was temporarily brought back under control before it went aground. The Kulluk's crew were evacuated Dec. 29 as a precaution, Curtis Smith, an Alaska-based Shell spokesman, said in a telephone interview Dec. 30. The Coast Guard dispatched a cutter and rescue helicopters Dec. 28 after the Shell towing vessel Aiviq reported that its tow line to the Kulluk had parted in heavy seas, the Coast Guard said in a statement. Aiviq recaptured the barge, then went adrift itself when all four diesel engines quit because of contaminated fuel, Smith said. A second Shell ship, the Nanuq, had joined the 360-foot (110-meter) Aiviq in towing the drilling rig south. The Nanuq is equipped to contain any oil spill, according to a Shell fact sheet. The company has also dispatched a tug, the Guardsman, and the Klamath, a 47-foot skimming vessel, to help in the recovery. Both the Coast Guard and Shell will investigate why the tow boats lost control of the Kulluk.