• Eric J. Chandler / U.S. Coast Guard via AFP - Getty Images

    Tanker vessel Renda remains offshore as the transfer of 1.3 million gallons of fuel nears completion on January 18, 2012. The Coast Guard Cutter Healy has been escorting and breaking ice for Renda since Jan. 3, and will soon begin breaking more than 300 miles of ice for the return trip. The Russian tanker completed the delivery on Jan. 19 of 1.3 million gallons of fuel to a remote Alaskan port, after an unprecedented operation helped by a US ice-breaker, officials said. The Vladivostok-based "Renda" began pumping fuel ashore to the town of Nome late Monday, after battling across 300 miles of Arctic ice with the help of the US Coast Guard ship "Healy."

    With fuel transfer complete, ships prepare for 300 mile return trip home

    While the goal of transferring 1.3 million gallons to Nome was successful, there is still a long journey ahead for the ships and crew before their mission is really over.

    AP reports:

    "I don't really feel like it is over yet until everybody is safely through the ice," said Jason Evans, board chairman of Sitnasuak Native Corp., the corporation that arranged for the tanker delivery.

    Evans called the transfer of the fuel "a huge milestone" but said the mission was not over. The tanker and icebreaker still need to get out of the frozen ice and back home, he said.

    The plan is for the icebreaker to help get the tanker back through the ice and to open water where the tanker will head for Russia. The icebreaker will go to Dutch Harbor, Alaska to drop off supplies and then to its home port in Seattle.

    Read the full story.

    See more images of the icebreaker's journey to Nome in PhotoBlog.

  • Russian tanker reaches Nome to refuel ice-bound town

    Petty Officer Grant DeVuyst / USCG via Reuters

    Two hoses used to transfer fuel from the Russian Russian-flagged tanker Renda are seen in Nome, Alaska, in this Jan. 16 handout picture. Renda, the Russian tanker escorted by the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy, reached the frozen Alaskan port of Nome with emergency fuel supplies on Jan. 13 after a 10-day voyage through ice-choked seas, the Russian company that owns the vessel said. David Mosley, an Anchorage-based spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard, said the Renda would remain at least half a mile from shore, due to the shallow depth of Nome's harbor.

    Grant Devuyst / USCG via AP

    In a photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, personnel from Bonanza Fuel attach a fuel hose to the shoreside transfer connection at the Nome harbor on Jan. 16. The hose is to transfer fuel from the Russian tanker Renda.

    Petty Officer Eric J. Chandler / USCG via AP

    In a photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, two hose lines run from the Russian tanker Renda as they prepare for pressure tests Monday Jan. 16, in Nome, Alaska. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy has been escorting and breaking ice for the Renda since Jan. 3, 2012, to help deliver approximately 1.3 million gallons of gasoline and diesel to Nome, Alaska.

    Grant Devuyst / USCG via AP

    In a photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, fuel hoses bridge the gap between the tanker vessel Renda and the shoreside fuel transfer connection in Nome harbor Jan. 16. The fuel transfer of more than 1.3 million gallons began later that day.

     From AP:

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Russian tanker and its crew have begun offloading more than a million gallons of fuel to an iced-in city along the western coast of Alaska.

    Two parallel hoses, 700 yards long each, are stretched between the tanker Renda and a pipeline that will deliver the fuel to storage tanks in the city of Nome. One is carrying gasoline, the other diesel fuel. For more on the story click here.

  • Icebreaker and fuel delivery reach Nome after going through 500 miles of Alaskan ice

    Grant DeVuyst / U.S. Coast Guard via Reuters

    The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy breaks ice near the coast of Nome, Alaska on Jan. 14. The cutter is assisting the Russian-flagged tanker to the frozen Alaskan port with emergency fuel supplies after a 10-day voyage through ice-choked seas, the Russian company that owns the vessel said. The mission is the first mid-winter marine delivery to western Alaska and comes as oil and gas development and climate change increase commercial traffic along trade routes in the Arctic.

    Charly Hengen / U.S. Coast Guard via Reuters

    The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy and the Russian-flag bearing tanker Renda sit off the coast of Nome, Alaska after reaching the frozen Alaskan port with emergency fuel supplies in this Jan. 14 photo. The mission is the first mid-winter marine delivery to western Alaska and comes as oil and gas development and climate change increase commercial traffic along trade routes in the Arctic.

    msnbc.com news services report:

    The tanker Renda was moored off Nome's harbor after a Coast Guard icebreaker cleared a path for it through hundreds of miles of ice. Jason Evans, board chairman of the Sitnasuak Native Corp., said the bulk of the mission's biggest challenges were behind the crew, but a lot of work remained.

    "In theory, it was possible and in reality, it now is done," Evans said of the journey.

    The tanker stopped slightly less than a half-mile from the harbor Saturday night, and ice disturbed by its journey had to freeze again so workers could create some sort of roadway to lay a hose that will transfer 1.3 million gallons of fuel from the tanker to the harbor.

    The tanker began its journey from Russia in mid-December, picking up diesel fuel in South Korea before heading to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, where it took on unleaded gasoline. It arrived late last week off Nome, more than 500 miles from Anchorage on Alaska's west coast. In total, the tanker traveled an estimated 5,000 miles, said Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo, commander of District Seventeen with the Coast Guard.

    Read the full story.

    Charly Hengen / U.S. Coast Guard via Reuters

    The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy guides the Russian tanker Renda closer to the fuel transfer mooring point off the coast of Nome, Alaska on Jan. 14. The mission to the frozen port is the first mid-winter marine delivery to western Alaska and comes as oil and gas development and climate change increase commercial traffic along trade routes in the Arctic.

  • U.S. Coast Guard via AP

    An image from the bridge camera aboard the Ice Breaker Healy taken at 4:01 a.m. EST on Jan. 13, 2012 shows lights on the shore line as the Healy and an oil tanker approach the cut-off town of Nome, Alaska.

    9 miles from Nome: Icebreaker closes in on cut-off Alaska town

    When this image was taken, the Healy was 9.2 miles from Nome. The latest report from the Associated Press says the Russian tanker that the icebreaker is escorting is now just six miles from its destination.

    See more images of the two ships' journey on PhotoBlog.

  • Coast Guard icebreaker carves path towards cut-off Alaska city

    Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally / U.S. Coast Guard via AP

    U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, left, breaks through the Bering Sea ice 165 miles south of Nome, Alaska, on a return path to break ice up around the tanker Renda on Jan. 8, 2012. The Renda is carrying more than 1.3 million gallons of critically needed fuel to be delivered to Nome.

     

    Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally / U.S. Coast Guard via AP

    Coast Guard Cutter Healy breaks ice on Jan. 8, 2012.

    msnbc.com staff and news services report from ANCHORAGE, Alaska: 

    A Coast Guard icebreaker is cutting a path through icy seas for a Russian tanker carrying much-needed fuel for the iced-in Alaska city of Nome.

    The 370-foot tanker Renda, hauling more than 1.3 million gallons of fuel, is scheduled to arrive later Monday or Tuesday.

    Video and still photo images released by the Coast Guard show the two vessels moving steadily through ice jammed seas. Read the full story.

    Seaman Benjamin Nocerini / U.S. Coast Guard via Reuters

    Russian-flagged tanker Renda follows a path made in the ice by the crew of the Healy, 250 miles south of Nome on Jan. 6, 2012.

    A Coast Guard vessel is cutting a path through the icy waters for a Russian tanker carrying much needed-fuel for Nome, Alaska. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.