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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
June 2009

Vol. 14, No. 26 Week of June 28, 2009

Alyeska completes first summer shutdown

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. said June 22 that it safely restarted the trans-Alaska oil pipeline after the first scheduled maintenance shutdown of the summer.

The line was restarted at about 4 p.m. June 21, the company said; shutdown was at 6 a.m. June 20.

The company said teams removed three sections of pipe that connected the 48-inch mainline to older equipment no longer in use at Pump Station 3 and replaced a 62,000-pound valve used to redirect the flow of crude oil inside the pump station. Crews also tested new equipment at Pump Station 4 and enhanced leak protection on mainline valves at Pump Station 1.

“There’s nothing routine about these shutdown events,” Mike Joynor, Alyeska’s senior vice president for pipeline oil movements and engineering, said in a statement. He credited teams in the field and at the company’s offices for safe execution of the work.

Tanker loading not affected

Alyeska said months of planning and lessons learned from previous maintenance shutdowns allowed completion of the work safely and ahead of schedule.

Loading of Alaska North Slope crude oil at the Valdez Marine Terminal was not affected by the shutdown.

The company said annual line-wide shutdowns allow maintenance crews to work on projects along the pipeline and at the terminal simultaneously. Shutdowns coincide with routine maintenance and equipment on the North Slope.

The company said a second summer maintenance shutdown is scheduled for July 18-19.

Alaska Department of Revenue figures for Alaska North Slope production show a drop in daily production from almost 700,000 barrels per day at the beginning of June to less than 300,000 bpd on June 20 and 21.

Conoco work under way

Turnaround work by BP this summer was reported last week.

ConocoPhillips Alaska spokeswoman Natalie Lowman told Petroleum News June 23 that the company is planning turnarounds at both Alpine and Kuparuk.

She said the Alpine work is planned maintenance which will occur in June and July to align with work on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

The maintenance work at Kuparuk will include work at Central Processing Facility 2 beginning in June, she said.






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