The fuel barge showed up in the late evening and stayed through the day. It was pumping heating fuel and gas into the large tanks at the fuel tank farm. With it so long, I would have been curious to see it navigate the small meanderings of this little river, the Piktikmaluk. There's a whole lot of back and forth between here and the Johnson River.
These barges are the energy life lines of the villages. They travel up and down throughout the summer delivering goods. The year before, the village of Nome received all kinds of attention as their fuel barge did not make it that far north due to a large storm. Then the area froze up. A Russian tanker was hired to get fuel to them.
The tugboat maneuvered the barge and is now heading downstream back to Bethel. I am told when it arrived it was very low in the water. I never did hear how many gallons it offloaded. Right now gas goes for about $7.30 per gallon and heating fuel is about $8.00 per gallon.
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