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June sees first of summer turnarounds Gathering Center 2 at Prudhoe Bay already down for month-long project; first Alyeska shutdown will be June 20-21, second in July By Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Summer maintenance work is already under way for Alaska’s oil and gas industry, with Gathering Center 2 down for a month-long turnaround starting June 6.
The down time for the projects at Prudhoe Bay, of which GC2 is just the first, includes a slowdown, a flat period for mechanical work and the ramp up at the end of the project, BP Exploration (Alaska) spokesman Steve Rinehart told Petroleum News June 5.
Some 200 to 250 employees and contractors will work through a series of turnarounds this summer, Rinehart said, with a Flow Station 2 turnaround scheduled to start around July 7 and a turnaround at Gathering Center 1 scheduled to start July 31. Each of these projects is expected to take about four weeks, Rinehart said.
In addition, BP plans a two- to three-week project at Gathering Center 3 — a somewhat smaller project which will be mostly done by people based at that facility.
A significant project at Endicott to replace the production control system on the main production island overlaps with other work and will also involve a significant cadre of people, Rinehart said, so while the Endicott work is under way the number of people involved in summer maintenance projects will total 300 or more.
Production impact? Rinehart said there will be some impact on production but it’s “very difficult to quantify.” There are a lot of production variables in the summer season, which is typically a major maintenance season and it also depends on what you compare the production to, he said — last summer or last winter? Because of equipment efficiencies in cold weather, winter production rates are higher on the North Slope than summer production rates.
With one facility down, the field optimization team can employ other assets differently, putting other pieces into play in different ways to make up for the facility that is in turnaround, he said.
BP provides the state with an annual forecast — and updates that forecast monthly, Rinehart said. Because these major maintenance projects have been in planning for a year or more, they are also built into the company’s forecasts.
Alyeska shutdowns Turnarounds on the North Slope are scheduled to coincide with summer shutdowns of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
There are two scheduled shutdowns this summer, pretty typical for the last 10 years, Alyeska spokesman Matt Carle told Petroleum News June 8.
The June 20-21 shutdown will primarily focus on Pump Station 3 electrification and automation, tying in new strategic reconfiguration equipment and disconnecting legacy equipment from the pipeline, Carle said, while the second shutdown, scheduled for July 18-19, will be focused on installing a pig launcher at Pump Station 8.
Each turnaround is scheduled for 36 hours; both occur over weekends.
Within each of the two shutdowns approximately 15 to 20 smaller tasks will be done throughout the system, he said.
Carle said Alyeska expects to spend $250 million on projects this year; more than 700 contractors and staff will be working on various maintenance tasks through the system during the peak summer months.
North Slope work details Rinehart said the GC2 work in June includes replacing block valves and pressure relief values. In addition to regular maintenance BP will be doing safety and integrity improvements.
When the plant is down, that’s the time to do as much as you can, he said. There are more than 300 individual items on the list in the GC2 turnaround.
As part of the GC2 turnaround BP will be making the artificial gas lift line pig-able. This was the line where BP found external corrosion in the course of a regular inspection this spring, he said, and the AGL line was out of service for a couple of weeks. The 24-inch AGL line runs about 16 miles from GS2 to FS2.
Rinehart said the work on the line this summer had been planned before the corrosion was found and involves modifying the line with attachment points at key locations for portable pig launchers and receivers. By putting in launcher and receiver sets at strategic points the whole line doesn’t have to be down for pigging and it can be managed more efficiently, he said.
It’s part of a “make pig-able” project — identifying lines not initially designed or built with launchers and receivers and making those pig-able so they can be maintained and inspected more effectively.
Once the work is done the whole line will be pig-able, both for maintenance pigging and for in-line inspection — so-called smart pigging, Rinehart said.
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