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June 2011

Vol. 16, No. 23 Week of June 05, 2011

Alaska Pipeline Project FERC filings

Preliminary draft reports describe work plan for pipelines, gas treatment plant, workforce requirements for construction, operation

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

While there have been no announcements of agreements to ship natural gas on a proposed North Slope to market pipeline, recent filings by the Alaska Pipeline Project provide some details on what the work to build the project would entail and how the pipeline would be managed once it became operational.

The Alaska Pipeline Project, the TransCanada-ExxonMobil partnership, filed some preliminary draft reports with the Federal Energy Regulatory Authority at the end of April, while analysis of data collected in the 2010 field season continues.

Denali, the BP-ConocoPhillips partnership, recently put its plans on hold, citing lack of commercial agreements with shippers. APP, licensed under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, is committed by its agreement with the State of Alaska to advance its project through receipt of a FERC certificate of convenience and necessity, even in the absence of shipping agreements.

Alaska legislators have begun to question the viability of the project, and discussion of its economics is likely when the Legislature reconvenes in January.

Commercial discussions continuing

In a monthly update to FERC on April activities, APP said the project is continuing commercial discussions with potential shippers. Planning is under way for the 2011 summer field program and general environmental regulatory work planning in support of regulatory filings is ongoing, APP said.

Resource report 10, one of two filed with FERC, describes APP’s route and facility evaluation and process, and technical rationale and justification for selection of the proposed project.

Resource report 1 describes work which would need to be done to build the project and provides some details on how it would operate once it is complete.

APP said that “location information, facility descriptions, resource impact data, construction methods, and mitigation measures presented in this report are preliminary and subject to change” and said it is conducting engineering studies, environmental resource surveys, agency consultations and stakeholder outreach efforts to further refine and define the project.

Several areas of the route are being more thoroughly analyzed: Alaska’s North Slope including the Prudhoe Bay unit area; Atigun Pass through the Brooks Range; the Yukon River crossing; the city of Fairbanks; the Delta Junction area; multiple locations between Delta Junction and the Alaska-Yukon border, including fault crossings; and the Upper Tanana region near Tetlin.

Workforce numbers

The anticipated construction workforce would peak at 5,000 to 7,000 workers on the Alaska portion of the pipeline, with individual spreads employing up to 1,600 people, APP said. For each of eight compression stations in Alaska, construction is estimated to take about 350 days and require some 150 workers to construct, inspect and pre-commission. The two meter stations are estimated to take 100 days each to construct and each require about 100 workers.

The pipeline work includes mainline block valves, pig launcher and receiver facilities and associated “ancillary and auxiliary infrastructure” including temporary workspace, access roads, helipads, construction camps, pipe storage areas, contractor yards, borrow sites and dock modifications. APP said it will also use existing airstrips.

The gas treatment plant, including infrastructure and dock modifications, is estimated to require as many as 850 workers and three sealifts.

Once the pipeline is in operation, APP estimates that operation and maintenance of the pipelines, meter stations, and compressor stations will take some 35-50 full time people in Alaska, including trades technicians, technical specialists, safety personnel, support staff and management, with additional engineering, maintenance and management support by the project sponsor companies.

Recruitment for operations jobs

“Current information indicates the number of qualified local people may not be sufficient to fill operating and maintenance manpower requirements and recruitment programs will be required in advance of project start-up.”

APP said it would recruit local people in 2015 to start training in preparation for operations in 2020, with field trainees to be trained at existing project sponsor companies’ sites for the first two years. Then the trainees would support commissioning and startup of APP as required.

“The balance of experienced technicians required will be seconded from project sponsoring companies’ operations teams and phased out over 5-10 years during Operations,” APP said.

The gas treatment plant would initially be staffed “with a core team of experienced employees from the project sponsoring companies, coupled with trained new hires and experienced local hires.” Local hires would progressively displace non-local employees as the local hires achieve “the required competency levels and gain sufficient experience.”

GTP on-site operations will include approximately 200 employees, with another 200 on off rotation and about 100 employees comprising on-site support.

Remote operation

APP said the pipeline system, including meter stations and compression stations, will be remotely monitored and operated from existing facilities at TransCanada’s gas control center in Calgary, Alberta.

“Appropriate redundancies and back-up facilities will be provided to ensure operational reliability.”

The central control center will monitor meter stations and monitor and control compressor stations via a supervisory control and data acquisition system and telecommunications.

“Compressors could also be shut down locally if needed,” APP said.

APP said a regional operations and maintenance office in Fairbanks would maintain the pipeline and aboveground facilities.

The gas treatment plant will be monitored and controlled from a control center at the GTP, with gas detection and alarm systems installed throughout the facility and emergency depressuring and/or shutdown systems installed throughout the facility and emergency depressuring and/or shutdown systems designed to be initiated automatically or remotely.

There will also be “equipment health monitoring systems” installed which will collect and trend data, monitor critical rotating equipment and manage data for access both locally and remotely.

Bore crossing methods

Where the pipeline crosses streams it may be buried — various methods are discussed in the report — or an aerial-span crossing method may be used. APP said proposed aerial crossing locations will be identified in a subsequent report.

The Point Thomson line, some 60 miles of 32-inch line, will be buried.

The majority of the 745 miles of 48-inch mainline from the North Slope to the Canadian border will also be buried, but the line will come above ground at major potentially active faults “with an above-ground configuration similar to the existing TAPS design at the Denali Fault,” APP said. “A sliding support design concept will be used for fault crossings with sufficient sliding capacity to accommodate fault rupture.”






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