Face to Face
Bill Howitt
TAPS Veteran
Published July 2002

On March 1, 1975, Bill Howitt started work as project engineer in the Pipeline Project Management Group in Fairbanks. Now a member of the Alyeska Executive Team, Howitt is one of the dwindling cadre of Alyeska employees and contractors who have been with TAPS since the start. His perspectives:

What was it like at the start?

This was brand new stuff. We were young and confident and thought we could handle any challenge –even though we didn’t know what the challenges were. I remember on June 22, 1976, we were pretty euphoric. Then Frank Moolin, the Senior Project Manager, called the senior construction staff together. “Gentlemen,” he said. “There is no alternative to finishing the pipeline by this winter. And today, the days start getting shorter.” We knocked off the challenges one by one and by December 1976 the pipeline was done.

What were some of those challenges?

Originally, the Gulkana River pipeline crossing was supposed to be buried. Late in the game we learned that we couldn’t bury the pipeline because of permafrost problems. It was too late to order materials for a new bridge so we to build it from materials at hand. Another challenge was Thompson Pass. We had no idea how to manage that 55-degree grade. We devised the high line system – it was all brand new.

Looking back over 25+ years, what events or achievements stand out?

First, building throughput to 2 million barrels a day was a big deal. Pipeline reliability was another. Any system is very unreliable at first. We kept tackling it until one day you wake up and realize that we’re at 99 percentplus reliability. That was a tremendous achievement in just a few years. Many other crude oil pipelines never exceed 85 percent reliability and that’s considered good. TAPS is practically off the charts.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill was a huge issue. It changed public policy but it also changed our focus. It forced us to look at systems and risk in new ways. We came out of that with a new willingness to look at ourselves more critically.

We pioneered the use of drag reduction additive (DRA) and that contributed enormously to maintaining throughput and efficiency. New designs at Pump Stations 2 and 7, and careful maintenance scheduling allowed us to sustain high throughput with substantially less capital investment than the original design.

What about achievements in recent years?

We took a huge step forward when we developed the ultrasonic corrosion pig with NKK of Japan. The NKK pig allowed us, for the first time, to really get ahead of corrosion and tackle it proactively.

Alyeska just completed a strategic planning effort to chart the future of the pipeline. We’re looking at some exciting capital reinvestment plans that would keep the system very safe, efficient and reliable at lower cost. It’s a reinvestment in the next 30 years. What’s the lesson you take from 28 years at TAPS?

The thing I’ve learned over and over is that the guys who designed this thing were incredibly good. If you’re ever tempted to mess with the original, you better understand why they designed it that way. Those guys were really, really good.