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Agency: BP can operate pipelines with alternate safety tests
Dan Joling Associated Press Writer
Federal regulators have denied a request by BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. to postpone testing of North Slope low-pressure transit pipelines with internal devices that clean lines or detect physical problems.
The company, however, can continue operating the lines as it uses alternate testing methods to detect problems.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, on March 15 ordered BP to test within three months three low-pressure oil pipelines with a “smart pig,” which runs inside the pipe and detects anomalies and weak spots.
The order called for BP to run scraper pigs through pipes to push out sediment and solids. The company also was to correct problems and report its progress.
The agency ordered the testing two weeks after BP discovered the largest oil spill in North Slope history, a leak of an estimated 201,000 gallons onto the tundra from a 34-inch pipeline in Prudhoe Bay’s western operating area.
The agency’s corrective action order called for maintenance pigging by June 12 and inspection with the smart pig by June 14.
Those deadlines will not be met but BP will be allowed to continue operating the transit lines to move oil to the trans-Alaska pipeline.
BP pleased with decision “We’re pleased that the Department of Transportation has authorized the continued operation of the BP transit lines and have made a preliminary determination that the testing alternatives we have proposed will meet the agency’s intent,” said company spokesman Daren Beaudo.
BP said factors outside its control made the deadlines impossible to meet and it petitioned for an extension.
One factor, Beaudo said, was a grand jury subpoena requiring BP to remove a segment of the line that leaked.
Also, BP has yet to work out a plan with Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., operator of the trans-Alaska pipeline, for the capture and disposal of the cubic yards of solids generated by pigging the line from the Prudhoe Bay eastern operating area, Beaudo said.
BP will continue to work to reach full compliance with the corrective order,
Beaudo said. It has met regularly with agency officials in Anchorage, Denver and Washington, D.C., he said, keeping them apprised of alternative monitoring.
Inhibitor now being directly injected One reason for the leak, Beaudo said, is that corrosion inhibitor may not have reached the affected pipeline. Corrosion inhibitor is now being injected directly, he said.
The company has begun 30 alternate testing methods, including radiography, ultrasonic testing and collection of data from 2,200 locations along the 22 miles of pipeline under review. The company is conducting monthly measurements of corrosion inhibitors and has installed devices that allow monitoring of lines beneath gravel roads and gravel caribou crossings.
“We have a really good idea of the condition of the lines,” Beaudo said.
The agency said the testing alternatives and BP’s enhanced monitoring appear to meet the agency’s intent. However, the requirement for the internal testing will remain and it may add requirements following a review of the company’s data.
“Our objective is to ensure their pipelines are completely safe,” said Tom Barrett, agency administrator.
In a letter to BP, associate administrator Stacey Gerard said the pipeline safety office was not ready to complete its evaluation and that it “reserves the prerogative to seek civil penalties for violations of these requirements.”
Lisburne pigging began June 10 Pigging of a line from the Lisburne oil field began June 10.
The earliest two sections of the eastern area transit pipe could be inspected and cleaned is mid-July and mid-October, Beaudo said.
The earliest the western area could be started is the second quarter of 2007, Beaudo said. Another complicating factor is that the pig launcher is upstream of the 34-inch line that’s now shut in.
“We’re going to have to put in a new pig launcher,” he said.
BP is part owner of the Prudhoe Bay oil field, the nation’s largest, but operates it for all owners.
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