Plugging bullet holes quicker
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Alyeska unveils lighter-weight hydraulic clamp for trans-Alaska pipeline that contains spill from bullet hole, diverting oil into bladders
The Associated Press
A lighter-weight hydraulic clamp that could more quickly plug a bullet hole in the trans-Alaska oil pipeline has been officially placed in the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. repair toolbox.
The clamp is the invention of Alyeska and Fairbanks engineering firms, which worked on the device after a man shot the pipeline with a high-powered rifle in 2001, causing a $20 million cleanup bill.
Alyeska employees practiced with the clamp for the first time in early May in company training exercises.
“I’m very pleased with what they have done,” said Becky Lewis, the Department of Environmental Conservation pipeline section manager with the Joint Pipeline Office. The JPO is an Alaska pipeline oversight group consisting of officials from DEC, the Bureau of Land Management and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The exercise was conducted with a portable pipeline set up on the oil pipeline right of way near Fairbanks.
The clamp contains the spill and diverts the lost crude oil into bladders.
The clamp was manufactured in Fairbanks, Alyeska spokesman Curtis Thomas said.
“The clamp is newly designed, smaller than our previous one,” he said. “More portable, easier to maneuver and better designed for a bullet hole.”
Daniel Lewis of Livengood shot the pipeline in 2001 with a .338 rifle, puncturing the steel insulating jacket and the pipe and causing 286,000 gallons of crude oil to spill. About 176,000 gallons were recovered and re-injected back into the pipeline.
Lewis was convicted of oil pollution and criminal mischief, plus assault, driving while intoxicated and weapons misconduct for handling a hunting rifle while drunk. He was sentenced to 16 years in state prison.
It took spill responders 36 hours to stop the leak and plug the bullet hole.
Last summer the company demonstrated the new clamp to regulators and employees. Spill responders will train with the clamp once a year during one of the company’s 72 training exercises, Thomas said. Alyeska wins API environmental award Alyeska has more to be proud of: For the third year in a row, the company has won the American Petroleum Institute’s Large Operator Environmental Performance Award. The 2004 award honors a company that has demonstrated the best spill prevention and containment performance records.
The award was based on API spill data and considers both the numbers of spills per mile of pipeline and the volume of the spills. Alyeska’s total spill volume for 2004 was approximately 210 gallons, which consisted of diesel fuel, lube oil and hydraulic fluid primarily from fleet equipment and support operations. Of that, the cumulative volume of Alaska North Slope crude oil was less than one gallon. For perspective, the company moved 14,374,487,442 gallons in 2004 (342, 249, 701 barrels). In the case of all spills, the source was quickly identified and the site was cleaned up immediately, Alyeska said.
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