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July 2009

Vol. 14, No. 28 Week of July 12, 2009

BP in Alaska: Prudhoe Bay production begins

Frank Baker

For Petroleum News

June 20, 1977, 10:26 a.m. Operations Control Center Valdez: “Gathering Center 1, we have verified with Pump Station 1 that you are authorized to start production at a rate of 100,000 barrels per day.” Gathering Center 1: “Affirmative. We have advised Pump Station 1 that we are opening the valve at Skid 50 to begin production.”

With the words above, North America’s largest oil field came to life 32 years ago, charting a new future for Alaska, BP and the nation.

June 20, 1977, was a gray, overcast day at Prudhoe Bay as scores of reporters, dignitaries and others huddled around the pipeline outside Pump Station 1, listening for the “clanker pig” that would signal Prudhoe Bay’s first crude oil was moving through the 48-inch pipeline on its 800-mile journey to Valdez.

At BP’s Gathering Center 1, board operators Jim Blythe and Lowry Brott engaged the electric shipping pumps to begin the flow of oil. Weeks and months of preparations would now be put to the test.

“We had some wells with pressures of 2,000 p.s.i. and higher,” Blythe recalls. “Well F-2, for example, was producing at 23,000 barrels per day. One of our wells on D-pad, D-5, was so strong that the thermal expansion popped it right out of the flowline bundle. We were careful not to open the chokes too much, because we could easily over-pressure our equipment.”

Gene Smagge, formerly a production operator, was at Skid 50 — across the road from Pump Station 1. Smagge opened the valve to send Prudhoe Bay’s first oil to market.

“There was friendly competition with ARCO, operator of the eastern side of the field,” says Smagge. “We were trying to see who could get their oil into Pump Station 1 first. I think we beat them by a shave.”

Eyes from across Alaska and the nation were focused on Prudhoe Bay during the critical startup phase.

“We had a desk full of telephones,” recalls Lowry Brott, currently Northstar operations support manager. “We were connected to everyone — Pump Station 1, ARCO, Valdez, Anchorage, even Cleveland. Sohio had heavily extended itself financially to build the trans-Alaska pipeline and get Prudhoe developed. Because of the permitting delays in getting the pipeline built, folks were very interested in getting oil flowing as soon as possible.”

While field production startup proceeded relatively smoothly, the first month was not without problems. On June 25 an over-pressured relief valve in Skid 40 blew a hole through the roof of Gathering Center 1. No fire or injuries were reported. Vibrations in plant equipment caused temporary shutdowns. Of a more serious nature, an explosion and fire July 8 at Pump Station 8 of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline killed one worker.

The oil front arrived at the Valdez Terminal uneventfully late on the evening of July 28, and the first tanker load left for the U.S. West Coast on August 1.

“It was an exciting time,” reflects Jim Gilroy, who was a production superintendent and now retired from BP. “Everything was new. We were moving into uncharted territory.”

With the addition of Gathering Center 2 in July and Gathering Center 3 early in 1978, BP and ARCO achieved an average daily production rate of slightly over 1 million barrels per day. The 1.5 million-barrel-per-day Prudhoe Bay plateau rate was achieved in 1981, and was sustained until 1989, when the field declined by 10 percent to 1.4 million barrels per day.

Three decades of operations

By the end of 2008, the pipeline has delivered more than 15 billion barrels from the North Slope to the Valdez Marine Terminal. During the more than 30 years of operations, the pipeline’s reliability factor — the time it has been operational — has been 99.4 percent. Three decades after startup, the trans-Alaska oil pipeline is receiving major upgrades to extend the system’s economic life and improve its efficiency.






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