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Hilcorp works to repair oil-loading dock Job involved retrieving lost fender from bottom of Alaska’s Cook Inlet; company continues effort to reopen Drift River terminal Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
Hilcorp and its contractors are working to pull off a heavyweight salvage job in Alaska’s Cook Inlet.
The story began in March, when a piece of equipment known as a fender fell off the Christy Lee tanker loading platform on the inlet’s west side.
The offshore platform’s two fenders are what ships lay against while docked to pick up crude oil. The huge fenders, comprised of a steel truss with a wooden face, can be raised or lowered with winches to adjust for the level of a tanker as it loads.
In March, water got into a gearbox and caused the winching system to fail. A fender released as a result, and ended up on the seafloor, said Lori Nelson, spokeswoman for Hilcorp Alaska LLC.
Temporary fix A Hilcorp subsidiary, Cook Inlet Pipe Line Co., operates the Christy Lee platform, located at the Drift River oil terminal.
The loss of the fender was a serious problem, potentially forcing a shut-in of west Cook Inlet oil production had tankers not been able to dock at the platform. The tankers haul oil for refiner Tesoro, on the opposite side of Cook Inlet.
With the help of Global Diving & Salvage Inc., a temporary floating fender was devised for the platform, Nelson said. But the temporary fix would not be able to withstand the rigors of winter and the ice that bulls about the inlet.
The question was whether to fashion a new fender, or try to salvage the one on the seafloor.
The salvage job won out, Nelson said.
Big barge In late July, a huge barge-mounted crane — said to be the largest marine crane operating in Alaska — succeeded in recovering the fender off the bottom. The fender weighs well in excess of 100 tons, Nelson said.
The fender was barged to the east side of Cook Inlet, to the ASRC Energy Services dock.
The plan is to repair the fender and then barge it back to the Christy Lee platform for re-installation, Nelson said. The hope is to have it in place by the end of September.
“We’re just super proud of the fact that we were able to execute so quickly and salvage the original system,” Nelson said.
Seattle-based Pacific Pile & Marine operates the derrick barge, known as the Salvation.
Jason Davis, Alaska division manager for Pacific Pile & Marine, told Petroleum News his company hopes to homeport the barge in Homer to serve the oil and gas industry. The company is leasing the equipment, he said.
Terminal reopening Hilcorp is working to reopen the Drift River terminal, which includes a tank farm for storing crude oil produced from west Cook Inlet fields.
The facility has been largely closed since nearby Redoubt volcano erupted in March 2009. The eruption sent mud flows known as lahars down the Drift River, but protective berms built around the terminal saved it from a potentially disastrous inundation.
Now Hilcorp is working to upgrade the terminal fortifications, and is seeking permission from the state Department of Environmental Conservation to reopen the terminal.
“We’re still working through the permitting process,” Nelson said.
Since the terminal shutdown, operators have used an alternative method to pipe oil directly onto tankers at the Christy Lee platform. It’s a method Hilcorp says is far from ideal.
Hilcorp plans to install steel sheet piling to bolster the tank farm protections. Site preparation work already has begun.
“An incredible amount of steel” is being shipped from Antwerp, Belgium, via Vancouver, British Columbia, says a Hilcorp Alaska blog on the terminal reopening project.
Hilcorp is aiming to finish the terminal improvements by Oct. 1.
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