Two agencies okay Prudhoe restart

Petroleum News

BP has secured two more regulatory approvals to restart the shut-in eastern side of Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay oil field by developing a bypass pipeline link to carry oil from the east through pipelines that now carry oil from the Endicott and Lisburne fields, bypassing Prudhoe’s corrosion-damaged transit lines.

The eastern portion of the Prudhoe Bay unit has been shut in since August due to corrosion problems in its transit lines.

The two approvals of BP’s restart plan came from the State Pipeline Coordinator’s Office and the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

On Sept. 21 SPCO said BP requested a letter of acceptance for the company’s plan to construct and install four connections to re-route oil from the Prudhoe Bay unit to the Endicott pipeline.

The agency said hot taps would be built to connect the Endicott line to flow stations 1 and 2 and two tie-ins will be constructed to the crude oil topping unit.

SPCO approved BP’s plan with the following conditions: “The wooden temporary support for the Endicott pipeline tie-in at flow station 2 shall be removed to ensure that any settlement or rotation of the structure will not damage the insulation/jacketing of the pipeline and the permanent support shall be installed and fully functional no later than May 1, 2007; and, Prior to the operation of the new tie-ins, BP is to provide documentation to SPCO that the tie-ins passed applicable hydrostatic standards.”

On Sept. 20, AOGCC said it had approved its part of BP’s bypass plan.

AOGCC, a state agency, has authority over the custody meters that measure volumes of oil produced from different fields. Any change in the pipeline network that involves such meters can’t be made without commission approval, Commissioner Cathy Foerster told Petroleum News.

“Our approval is just a small step, but it’s important because it’s the cash register,” she said.

BP still needs other state and federal agency approvals to put the plan into action. The company is hoping to have them all in hand by the time it is ready to restart the eastern part of the field in late October.

Oil production at Prudhoe Bay currently stands at 250,000 barrels per day from the western side of the field. Eastern production will be about 200,000 barrels.