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Alyeska continues maintenance and upgrade program Work this year will roughly equal that of last year — shift towards larger number of smaller projects in Valdez as loading berth projects conclude Steve Sutherlin PNA Managing Editor
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. is pursuing a program of refurbishment and upgrades “to continue to operate its assets in a manner that assures protection of equipment and people,” said Richard Ranger, Alyeska’s Valdez business unit adviser. Expenditures system wide will be roughly equivalent to the amounts spent each year for the last two years, he said, but he declined to say what the company’s total maintenance and upgrade spending would be for the year.
In Valdez there’s a shift toward a greater number of smaller dollar projects, Ranger told PNA Feb. 20. More than anything else, he said, the shift has to do with the work progress on refurbishing of the company’s two principal loading berths, berths four and five.
The company will continue with the cycle of tank maintenance, cleaning and corrosion inspection and repair, Ranger said. A tank project can cost several million dollars, and can be more costly if there is an accumulation of oil-saturated sediments, such as were encountered in a primary receiving tank the company cleaned last year.
“As North Slope production advances to farther and farther reaches of the fields, we have more and more impurities in the oil that we receive,” he said.
Alyeska also will continue its project to reline its fire system, a network of seawater distribution mains that supplies hydrants and fire monitors throughout the terminal, Ranger said. The company lined more than one-third of the system last year.
The company is in a major maintenance cycle for the ballast water treatment system, including the network of pipelines that move ballast water, and those that carry oil recovered from ballast water back to the storage tanks.
There is some additional work planned for the incinerators, powerhouse, and various systems and controls.
“We have continued relationships with the companies that have been supporting our project effort both in the design phase and also in the conduct of the labor, and we’ve added a couple as well,” he said. “It’s going to be a busy year. At times last year we had as many as twelve or thirteen hundred people passing through our gate on a given day.”
For its operations in Valdez the company has between 700 and 800 workers, including spill response workers, he said. Streamlining for efficiency The company is striving to make operations more efficient, Ranger said. Now oil vapors that are captured as a safety precaution are burned to supplement the power needs of the operation.
Alyeska bought five new escort tugs and has made an investment in telecom upgrades. A new 48,000 square foot office building is nearing completion.
Streamlining operations for the company is an ongoing challenge. When changes are made the company must update 400 manuals.
“The solution can sometimes be more complicated than the problem it was meant to solve,” Ranger said.
The need to upgrade and renovate physical assets is just a part of the challenge the company faces as it prepares for the next 25 years of pipeline operation. As Alyeska looks to the future, it must address the fact that its workforce is aging, and the company is making it a priority to transfer the company’s knowledge and experience to the next generation of workers, Ranger said.
Ranger said it’s been a challenging winter from an oil movement standpoint because of rough seas. Alyeska has had to manage around delays, primarily of tankers coming north, he said.
Snow has also been a challenge this winter. Ranger said the terminal experienced 81 inches of snow on the week of Feb. 11. Strong safety record In addition to operating the marine terminal, Alyeska’s Valdez operations include tanker escort duties and spill response. The company’s Valdez functions fall under the scrutiny of the Joint Pipeline Office and the Prince William Sound Regional Citizen’s Advisory Council.
Alyeska actually funds the oversight it receives. The RCAC receives $2.5 million each year from Alyeska, while the JPO gets $5.5 million to offset the cost of pipeline regulation.
The terminal and its operations are continuously under scrutiny by the media as well, said Ranger.
The company is proud of the safety record it has achieved. Even with its high levels of activity last year, the company’s record able incident rate was only one per 200,000 man-hours worked, Ranger said.
“In 2001 we reinvigorated a nine year old procedure where every employee is empowered to stop work if he or she observes an unsafe condition,” he said.
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