Alyeska’s SERVS reaches 12,000 escorts

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. has reached a significant milestone: 12,000 tanker escorts.

The company operates the 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline and the tanker terminal at Valdez.

When tankers leave port laden with North Slope crude oil, powerful tugs operated as part of Alyeska’s SERVS — the Ship Escort/Response Vessel System — accompany the tankers out into Prince William Sound as a safety precaution.

The tug escorts are required by law.

Alyeska announced June 6 that the Polar Discovery, a tanker that carries oil for ConocoPhillips, departed from the Valdez Marine Terminal with the 10,192-horsepower tugs Aware and Nanuq escorting. It marked the 12,000th tanker escort for SERVS, Alyeska said.

“Congratulations to our employees and contractors for their dedication and personal commitment,” said Alyeska President Tom Barrett. “This milestone is a great example of the work we do in safeguarding the environment and transporting oil safely — day in and day out.”

Alyeska contracts with Crowley Maritime Corp., of Jacksonville, Fla., for the escort tugs.

The pipeline began moving oil in 1977. Since then, Prudhoe Bay and other North Slope fields have produced more than 16 billion barrels of crude oil and natural gas liquids.

SERVS was established in 1989 to assist tankers and to provide rapid oil spill response.

Anchorage-based Alyeska runs the pipeline and terminal on behalf of five owner companies: BP, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Koch Industries and Chevron.

—Wesley Loy