Alyeska President visits northern pump stations

Alyeska President Tom Barrett spent two of the shortest days of the year north of the Arctic Circle, visiting TAPS employees at Pump Stations 1, 3 and 4. His message during this late-December trip was simple: Good job this year, thanks for all you do, and have safe holidays.

“While many will be tracking Santa’s progress on Christmas Eve, our crews up north will be tracking the progress of cleaning pigs,” Barrett said. “Pump Station 4 is scheduled to launch one December 24 and Pump Station 1 on December 25. I’d like to extend special appreciation to all those standing watch over the holidays so we can continue to move oil safely on TAPS.”

At meetings with employees at Pump Stations 1 and 4, Barrett discussed the outstanding work TAPS employees do year round to keep oil moving and referenced the many projects that were accomplished safely. He also discussed some of the challenges ahead in 2012, such as leveling the amount of project work needing to be accomplished, improving risk management and, of course, addressing declining flow issues. Reducing the number of preventable vehicle accidents also received a lot of attention.

During the December pump station trip, Barrett talked with Vernon Sommer, the lone instrumentation tech on duty at Pump Station 3. At Pump Station 4, he enjoyed a piece of cake baked in honor of Dave Edgar, who was transferring to another location the next day. Veteran employee Charlie Craig at Pump Station 4 was thanked for his 35-year employment with Alyeska.

“I really enjoyed my time out on the line and the hospitality everyone extended to me,” Barrett said. “We had some excellent dialogue and heard some new ideas. It’s been almost a year now since I started the job at Alyeska and I have been repeatedly impressed by what our people achieve day in and day out, as well as in crises. I’m very proud to be part of the TAPS team.”