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Cook Inlet risk assessment nearly done Project team examines ways to avoid shipping mishaps and spills; options include towing, ice monitoring upgrades, subsea pipeline Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
An ongoing project to assess and reduce shipping and spill risk in Alaska’s Cook Inlet is entering its final phase.
The project is expected to wrap up in September 2014, with the project team looking to research and analyze several risk reduction options including improved towing capability, construction of a trans-inlet subsea oil pipeline, enhanced weather information delivery to ships, improved ice monitoring capability, and third-party inspection of workboats.
The Cook Inlet maritime risk assessment project involves the Kenai-based Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Cook Inlet RCAC, in the August issue of its Navigator newsletter, discussed the options for reducing the risk of oil spills.
Upgraded towing, subsea pipe “Determining whether additional towing resources are needed will require an in-depth analysis of current towing resources and whether a deep-draft vessel can self‐arrest by anchoring in Lower Cook Inlet after losing propulsion or steering,” the newsletter said. “The team will also research how often a tug of opportunity would be available to control a deep-draft vessel in Cook Inlet that has lost propulsion or steering.”
Analysis of the subsea pipeline option will involve “determining to what extent a pipeline will reduce the risk of a spill from tank vessels now moving oil across the inlet, as well as the relative costs and benefits to build it,” the newsletter said.
Cook Inlet Energy LLC, which has oil and gas properties on the inlet’s west side, has said it is pursuing construction of a 29-mile subsea pipeline across the inlet. The company has cited an estimated cost of $50 million.
The benefit would be to reduce the risk of the current practice of tankering westside oil production across the inlet to the Tesoro refinery on the Kenai Peninsula.
The Cook Inlet RCAC has adopted a resolution in support of the subsea pipeline as the safest way to move oil.
Ice monitoring The risk assessment team also is interested in understanding how well the vessel-tracking Automatic Identification System is working, and potential for using AIS to “deliver weather information directly to the bridge of a vessel.”
Drifting ice is a major worry in the inlet, which also is known for its huge tidal range.
In recent years, the Cook Inlet RCAC has installed a network of cameras to help with ice forecasting.
“The risk assessment team will study how to best improve upon the ice monitoring procedures already established, including an understanding of how the current camera system is working from different perspectives,” the newsletter said. “The study will also review the ice radar systems ... that may enhance how information about the nature and location of ice is developed and disseminated to mariners.”
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