CIPL to replace west side pipe section

Cook Inlet Pipe Line Co. has applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for work required to replace a 6,000-foot section of the crude oil pipeline which runs along the west side of Cook Inlet.

CIPL, owned by Hilcorp subsidiary Harvest Alaska, needs Corps authority for a temporary gravel pad to support a rig for horizontal directional drilling and associated equipment. Construction of the 1.2-acre temporary gravel pad is scheduled to begin in December, with reclamation of the pad in March 2015. Gravel and geotextile material would be removed upon completion of the project.

A new 20-inch pipeline would be installed via horizontal directional drilling parallel to the existing pipeline and in the existing pipeline right of way, with the existing pipeline to be abandoned in place.

The 20-inch onshore pipeline runs between the Granite Point tank facility and the CIPL Drift River terminal facility - both on the west side of Cook Inlet.

Portions of the work not requiring Corps authorization include a 6,000-foot pipe laydown area, extraction of pit run gravel from an existing material site owned by Hilcorp Alaska and a 3.5-acre equipment staging area in uplands on Hilcorp-owned land. Work areas would be accessed via an existing public access road and existing gravel spur road. The Corps authorized the 42-mile pipeline in 1966.

The integrity of the line was assessed in 2012 using smart pig technology and the pigging survey identified pipe wall anomalies at a number of locations, a number of which were repaired in 2013 and 2014.

The Corps said CIPL chose to replace the 6,000-foot section after previous attempts to repair this section using excavation repair and reburial were unsuccessful due to difficulty of getting necessary equipment to the area, which is in wetlands.

- Kristen Nelson