The Port

A former naval base, the Port of Adak offers several advantages over other ports. Shippers can count on deep draft berthing space with year-round ice-free access.

Advantages

  • Fueling dock — upgrades are under design for tankers up to 700 ft. length and 70 ft. draft
  • Space for custom built container transshipment terminal
  • 40,000 acres of easily accessible land available for custom built staging and storage facilities
  • 20 million gallons of underground fuel storage
  • Over 300,000 feet of warehouse space
  • Two paved runways over 7,600 ft. each
  • Equipment and materials hangars, paved real estate and available housing

Background

The Port of Adak is a year round ice-free, deep water port, providing transshipment, oilfield services, and fisheries operations with two fully equipped cargo piers and a fueling pier. The Port offers a massive 2,750 lineal feet of available berthing space, breakwater protection, and the capability to resupply vessels with fuel and water.

Optimal for efficient and timely fleet turnaround, the Port of Adak is also perfect for longer term berthing and is protected by a 1000 foot breakwater. Draft at the piers is -36 feet MLLW and tidal range is minimal at or above five feet. Two piers are rated at 1000 Ibs/square foot. Shoreside power availability is already in place where vessels can connect directly to the Adak power grid. Temporary power is also available for support vessels. Adak Offshore, LLC can provide cranes and other equipment to suit a variety of needs.

Marine Fueling Capabilities

The ability to refuel vessels at the Port of Adak is abundant. The environmentally sound OPA 90 Compliant, high capacity system accommodates up to 7,000 gallons of liquid bulk transfer per minute. The Port also has 465,000-barrel capacity of underground distillate storage and an additional 37,000-barrel capacity tank space for contingency use.

Offshore Capabilities

The Port of Adak can act as a strategic resupply point within 1,000 miles of the Artic oil and gas exploration projects during the summer months, and as a viable location to overwinter a fleet once sea ice has returned and exploration efforts are dormant due to the year-round ice-free water. The Port of Adak is truly an all-season port option for maritime operations.

Offshore oilfield service operations will be hard pressed to find a better logistics hub than the Port of Adak. The strategic location has deep draft berth space, unrivaled indoor and outdoor storage, superior aircraft runways and hangars, and onsite lodging and office space. Alaska service companies with long standing reputations across various industries support the infrastructure of Adak, and better yet, it is ready for use.

More than 100 acres of flat laydown yard, 400,000 plus square feet of covered storage, and over 150,000 square feet of hanger space are ideal for everything from containers, baskets, cranes, oil spill response equipment, to more hazardous cargo like chemicals and fuel. The expansive storage facilities at the port are available for short-term and long-term deposits.

Housing and Administrative Facilities

Adak once housed over 7,000 members of the military and their spouses, and family members. The existing housing infrastructure in place at the Port of Adak is vast. Currently, Adak’s housing facility can accommodate up to 300 long-term or short-term stays, with capacity for hundreds more with advanced notice. Fully furnished two-bedroom, two-bath units with a garage come standard with cable television, phone and Wi-Fi connections, a true home away from home.

Administrative buildings including furnished office space and conference rooms, local restaurants and stores, along with an onsite machine shop make start up in Adak easy.

Gateway to the Arctic

The Port of Adak is a logistical gateway, strategically located at the intersection of the North Pacific Great Circle Route and the Northwest Passage, Transpolar and Northern Sea Routes.

Faster Route

Arctic shipping routes between the US West Coast and Europe are up to 40% shorter than the Panama Canal route. Arctic routes between Asia and Europe are up to 50% shorter than the Suez Canal route.

The Aleutian Islands are America’s gateway to the Arctic

In a press release distributed by the American Maritime Partnership, Alaska ranks third in the nation for maritime jobs per capita. A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers showed that the maritime industry is worth more than $1 billion annually for Alaska’s economy. Investing in the Port of Adak is an investment in the thousands of Alaskans who make their living on the more than 5400 miles of Alaska’s waterways.

The Port of Adak is ready to contribute to the success of Alaska’s strong maritime industry.

The Aleutian Islands are America’s gateway to the Arctic. Two of the largest world trade routes, the Great Circle Route and the Northern Sea Route intersect just off Adak’s shores. This makes the Port of Adak an ideal location for the future home of Alaska’s transshipping hub.

As the newly developed Northern Sea Route continues to benefit from advancements in icebreaker ship technology, recent announcements out of Russia regarding new 65-megawatt icebreaker ships points to the possibility of expanding the usability of the Northern Sea Route from five months a year to seven months a year. The warming waters of the Arctic will also extend the ice-free season, which allows for container ships not equipped with icebreaker technology to navigate this highly efficient route. Vessels traveling south on the Northern Sea Route can also benefit from Adak’s strategic location by unloading cargo from costly and often inefficient icebreaker container ships and transload on to more efficient ships traveling the Great Circle Route.

Nearly 7,000 vessels a day travel the Great Circle Route. Often, many of the ships are not loaded to full capacity. Adak is primed to be a hub for pick up and/or delivery of containers from the Northern Sea Route awaiting transfer to the Great Circle Route. Operating at full capacity is a major goal of many carriers in the North American West Coast to Asia trade along the Great Circle Route, most of which only operate at about 80% capacity. These ships would have the capability to pick up extra cargo in Adak utilizing modern vessel tracking and vessel dispatch systems to facilitate a shuttle service from the Adak to Asia cargo.

Initial reviews by the Alaska Marine Pilots indicate that even mega containerships could land at Adak, up to the Maersk EEE vessels. The Port of Adak is currently modeling this megaport capability to verify its safety.

In addition to an outstanding location and extensive existing infrastructure, the Port of Adak is also seeking recognition as a Foreign Trade Zone, which would allow the transshipment of foreign origin cargoes without paying U.S. import duties.