Alyeska tests drag reducing agent

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. said May 18 that it has completed nine days of tests on a new drag reducing agent. DRA is injected at strategic locations along the pipeline to reduce the turbulence in the oil, making the oil earlier to pump.

The tests were conducted at pump station 9, near Delta. Pump station 12 was taken off-line for four hours at throughput levels that typically would have required the station to be on-line. The drag reducing agent was injected into the pipeline at pump station 9. The oil in the pipeline was pumped from pump station 9 over the Chugach Mountain Range to the Valdez marine terminal.

This series of DRA tests will continue over the next eight months. In addition to testing this new DRA, Alyeska will conduct tests with new products from the pipeline’s current supplier of DRA.

Alyeska said that DRA continues to be a developing strategy and that it frequently tests new and improved products.