Report cites sustained throughput at VMT

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

The total volume of oil loaded into tankers at the Valdez Marine Terminal in 2018 was virtually the same as in 2017, demonstrating that North Slope oil production has remained almost constant over the last couple of years, Scott Hicks, the terminal manager, told the Prince William Sound Citizens’ Advisory Council board on Jan. 24. The total volume loaded amounted to 178,137,687 barrels, about 5 million barrels less than in 2017. The oil was loaded onto a total of 247 tankers for export from Alaska.

With the marine terminal sitting at the southern end of the trans-Alaska pipeline, the terminal oil throughput provides an excellent measure of North Slope production volumes. Hicks commented that a few years ago the expectation was that North Slope production would continue to decline at a rate of 2 to 3 percent per year. That would have dropped the daily production rate to not much above 400,000 barrels per day by now. Instead the rate is still in the range of 540,00 to 550,000 barrels per day. That is a good new story that reflects oil production improvements that have happened in the past six or seven years, Hicks said.

A total of 217 gallons of oil were spilled from operations at the terminal in 2018. Of this, 160 gallons were spilled in an incident in February involving a loading arm at berth five of the terminal. In that spill, only around five gallons of oil reached the water, with the remainder being recovered. Also in 2018 there was a 55-gallon spill into containment in the ballast water system.

During 2018 seven individuals were hurt in some way during terminal operations, but there were no accident-related days away from the workplace.

- ALAN BAILEY