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Hilcorp requests pipeline permit
Harvest Alaska LLC, the Hilcorp Energy subsidiary responsible for Hilcorp pipelines in Alaska, has applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit associated with the construction of a new oil transportation pipeline between the Granite Point tank farm and the Kaloa pipeline junction on the west side of Cook Inlet. Harvest has planned the pipeline construction as part of a project to convert one of the existing twin Cook Inlet Gas Gathering System pipelines for the carriage of oil west to east under Cook Inlet, thus eliminating use of the Drift River terminal on the west side of the inlet and the associated shipment of oil by tanker to Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula.
The new pipeline will presumably accept oil from the Granite Point tank farm and be hooked up to the CIGGS line at Kaloa junction. The tank farm is connected by pipeline to the various oil fields on the west side of the inlet. The Corps of Engineers application also serves as an application to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation for state water quality certification for the project, and as a notice to tribes within the impacted area.
Trenched in According to the permit application, the approximately one-and-three-quarter mile, 10-inch diameter pipeline will be placed in a trench up to six feet deep in the right of way for the Beluga gas pipeline. The digging and side casting of material from the trench would take place during the winter, with material being returned to the trench after the pipeline and its associated optic fiber communications cable have been laid, also during the winter. The work would take place in areas of wetlands, including waters of the United States, but impacts on the wetlands would be temporary, the notice of permit application says.
The surface vegetative mat will be removed from the trench route prior to the start of trench excavation and will be replaced after the pipeline has been laid and the trench has been backfilled.
Harvest has said that, to minimize environmental impacts, the project will make as much use as possible of existing gravel pads, roads, barge landings and helicopter landing zones for transporting and staging equipment and materials for the project. Personnel will be housed in existing facilities and will be transported to remote locations by helicopter. And the project will use equipment and techniques designed to minimize wetlands impacts, Harvest has said.
Minimize spill risk In addition to installing a pipeline that complies with all appropriate design codes and regulatory requirements, the project has been designed to minimize the possibility of an oil spill, the notice of permit application says. Harvest has said that it will also implement a spill prevention training program for personnel engaged in the project.
The Corps of Engineers says that no threatened or endangered species are known to use the project area and that the project would not impact any known essential fish habitat.
The Corps requires public comments on the permit application by Aug. 17.
In addition to constructing this short length of oil pipeline from the Granite Point tank farm, Harvest’s overall project involves the construction of a new subsea natural gas pipeline from the offshore Tyonek gas production platform to Ladd Landing, north of the village of Tyonek. The new gas pipeline will enable Harvest to maintain the necessary capacity of east to west gas flow under Cook Inlet after one of the CIGGS gas pipelines has been converted to the carriage of oil.
- ALAN BAILEY
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