Ohio firm works on Prudhoe pipe fix

The Associated Press

Problems with BP’s leaking pipeline at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, have a northeast Ohio company working overtime to provide repair parts.

The Pipe Line Development Co. of Westlake, Ohio, known as PLIDCO, is shipping repair fittings by air to Alaska, said Kim Smith, PLIDCO’s director of marketing.

“We have been working two shifts about 20 to 22 hours a day,” Smith said. “We are looking to hire skilled welders and machinists immediately.”

BP, which operates the Alaska oil field, the nation’s largest, pledged to replace 16 miles of transit pipeline after discovering leaks and severe corrosion in the pipes.

BP said it would keep the western side of the oil field open, enabling it to funnel up to half its previous 400,000 barrels per day output.

BP needs 12 “split sleeves,” massive clamps that are used to repair leaks without shutting down the system, and four “weld end couplings” to connect lengths of undamaged pipe, PLIDCO sales manager Frank Castro said.

But manufacturing the split sleeves and end couplings normally takes up to a month because of the precision forming, welding, heat treating and machining involved.

So PLIDCO has been contacting its pipeline and oil company customers — over 100 around the world — in an effort to fill the order by borrowing any extra fittings from their warehouses.

“Most of the companies do have stock on hand as an insurance item,” said Castro.

The plan is to reduce the manufacturing time with the overtime and expansion of the work force, which now numbers only 75 at the family owned company.

The repair sleeves are cold rolled from 2-inch-thick, pressure-vessel-quality plate steel, welded, X-rayed and machined. The 34-inch diameter models weigh 980 pounds, and the 30-inch units weigh 875 pounds.