Work resumes after eight months on Alyeska valve upgrade project

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

After eight months, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. crews returned to work June 8 on a project to upgrade the control systems for the remote gate valves.

The project was shut down in October by senior vice president Bill Howitt because of what the company called inefficient management of the project, inadequate implementation of Alyeska’s quality program and allegations of a hostile work environment on the project.

A list of items to correct the deficiencies had to be completed before work on the project was allowed to resume.

To resume work, the project team had to develop a restart plan that would address the project management issues and the use of Alyeska’s quality program. A separate assessment of the program, including the open workplace issues, was conducted and each of the nine findings from the assessment was addressed by the project team.

Some of the remedial actions taken prior to restart of the project included clarification of the roles and responsibilities of the project team; clear guidance on how to address “out of scope” issues, and a clarification of the electrical codes to be used for work and inspection.

“I’m very pleased with the work done to restart on the project,” Howitt said.