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1st summer trans-Alaska pipeline maintenance shutdown June 20-21
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.’s first summer maintenance shutdown was scheduled for June 20-21.
The company said June 18 that its crews were preparing for a 24-hour major maintenance shutdown.
John Baldridge, Alyeska’s senior director for pipeline operations, said planning for the work has been going on for months.
“Alyeska maintains the pipeline as part of our commitment to the continued integrity and long-term viability of TAPS,” he said in a statement
Alyeska spokeswoman Michelle Egan told Petroleum News in an email that the company had already had some short duration shutdowns, without throughput impact, but that the June 20-21 shutdown is the first of two full shutdowns planned for the summer.
Alyeska work planned During the planned shutdown work is scheduled at Pump Station 1 in Prudhoe Bay, along with routine tests of all mainline valves between Atigun Pass and Pump Station 5, the company said.
Power system modifications are planned at Pump Station 1.
At Pump Station 3, below-ground piping will be isolated for internal integrity inspection using new technology.
The mainline valves between pipeline mileposts 165 and 275, Atigun Pass and Pump Station 5, will be tested to confirm valve sealing capability.
Alyeska said it plans other project and major maintenance work over the next couple of months, requiring several short-duration shutdowns of between six and eight hours, and one additional long-duration shutdown scheduled for Aug. 29-30.
The company said it conducts pipeline system shutdowns for projects and maintenance that can only be done while the pipeline isn’t in regular operating state, allowing crews time to work on projects simultaneously along the pipeline and at the Valdez Marine Terminal.
North Slope maintenance The North Slope producers regularly schedule large maintenance jobs around Alyeska shutdowns.
ConocoPhillips, the Kuparuk River unit operator, will be shutting down Central Processing Facility 3 beginning June 20 at Kuparuk “for several days of emergency system testing,” ConocoPhillips spokeswoman Natalie Phillips told Petroleum News in an email. That shutdown coincides with the trans-Alaska oil pipeline shutdown, she said.
Maintenance work is already under way at Kuparuk, she said. Central Processing Facility 2 was shut down June 15, and “inspection and modification work will go till approximately the first week of August.”
ConocoPhillips is also the operator at the Alpine field, the farthest west crude oil producing field on the North Slope, and Phillips said the annual turnaround at Alpine will begin in August “for major maintenance, and some tie-in work that is estimated to take several days.”
BP has previously said it plans $76 million for three turnarounds at Prudhoe Bay this summer (see story in April 20 issue). That work includes a debottlenecking module for Gathering Center 2 to improve gas handling capacity which is expected to add some 2,000 barrels per day of oil production.
BP’s scheduled work at Prudhoe includes the Central Gas Facility, GC2 and Flow Station 3, with work focused on facility maintenance.
- Kristen Nelson
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