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Alyeska evaluating strategic reconfiguration Unmanned, electrically powered pump stations in preliminary engineering Kristen Nelson Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. is doing preliminary engineering for a project which could reduce operating costs for the trans-Alaska oil pipeline by modernizing the pump stations and automating their operation.
This is just part of the review under way, John Barrett, Alyeska's program manager for strategic reconfiguration, told Petroleum News June 19. The study and planning phase of the company's strategic reconfiguration began in 2001, he said. Conceptual engineering, “the initial study phase where you take a lot of ideas and try to boil them down to what might work, and determine the feasibility of a project,” was completed for the pipeline at the end of last year. Conceptual engineering for the Valdez Marine Terminal is under way this year, Barrett said.
Preliminary engineering — the work being done on the pipeline now — is the final study phase, he said, finalizing the scope of the work, the cost and benefits, and creating an implementation plan. Alternatives have been narrowed down. “And one of them looks the best. In preliminary engineering, we take that alternative and we optimize it,” Barrett said.
At the end of preliminary engineering the scope, schedule, savings and cost will be known, and then the decision will be made by the pipeline owners whether or not to approve the project.
“Some people think this is already a done deal,” Barrett said. “And it's not. It looks good. It's a very exciting project for us because it looks like it has some tremendous benefits. But we don't have all of the costs and savings and benefits identified.”
If the project is sanctioned, he said, “our goal would be to complete the project by the end of 2005. We have to determine through the engineering effort and development of this implementation plan whether that is possible. But our goal right now is the end of 2005.” Optimizing for 1 million barrels a day The original pump station design was driven by what was needed when the pipeline was built, and by the fact that there were 2 million barrels of oil a day to move, Barrett said.
The goal of the strategic reconfiguration projects, he said, is “to simplify the assets and renew some of the equipment that needs to be upgraded and make it more fit for purpose.”
Alyeska doesn't move 2 million barrels a day anymore; it now moves something like 1 million barrels a day.
“But we still have the same pumps and equipment at these stations. And a lot of that equipment isn't being used and some of it that is being used is not as efficient as it could be it if was designed for this flow rate.”
In addition to making the pipeline “fit for purpose,” Alyeska also wants “to upgrade it, using the technology that has advanced over the 25-year period” since the pipeline went into service.
A lot has been upgraded over the years, he said, but the present plan “is a larger step” to bring some of the pipeline up to the level of current technologies and also to gain efficiencies. Initially 11 alternatives Conceptual engineering for the pipeline reconfiguration evaluated 11 alternatives, then looked more thoroughly at two. The alternative selected for preliminary engineering was “electrification of the stations that we are currently using,” Barrett said.
Electric motors would be put in, and “new pumps that are designed for the flow rate that we're running.” Electricity can be generated at the station or, where feasible, a station could tie into commercial power. And the new equipment would come with new control systems. Any other controls needed, such as at the centralized control center, would be upgraded.
“The telecommunications are being upgraded at the same time so that when we finish we have this new equipment that is designed for remote control. It is run from one control center instead of being operated from individual stations. And it's through an upgraded telecommunications system that gives us the ability to operate, monitor and control this pipeline system from one location,” Barrett said. Unmanned pump stations The changes and automation Alyeska is looking at for the trans-Alaska pipeline are “not something that has never been done before. This is done everywhere. So we aren't planning on using cutting-edge, brand-new technology. We're using proven technology that other people have already shown gives them efficiencies…,” Barrett said.
There will be a reduction in the work force, he said: “We are doing this to gain the efficiencies that we can.”
Fewer people will be required to operate the pipeline if the pump stations are upgraded, and “maintenance should be more efficient and easier with newer equipment.”
If Alyeska proceeds with its present plan for upgrading the pump stations, the stations will “no longer have operators because everything is being monitored from the control center,” Barrett said, although there will continue to be maintenance people working on the pipeline and on the pump stations.
He said Alyeska is looking at job elimination now, trying to give people as much notice as possible, and looking at retraining for employees whose jobs are similar to jobs that will be available on the reconfigured pipeline, as well as “consideration for people who do have to leave, to help them become placed in some other type of position.”
Maintenance crews would still be required for the 800 miles of pipeline, Barrett said. “That doesn't change. It's really the stations' maintenance that we are talking about.” Maintenance crews will also respond from different centers because every pump station now has a camp where people can stay, and that won't be true in the future.
Alyeska also has to revise its spill response plans because the existing plans are based on responding from the pump stations. “And we will be responding from different locations and we may need to deploy equipment in different ways as a result of this,” he said.
Editor's note: See part 2 of this story in the July 13 issue of Petroleum News.
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