President's Message
Kevin Hostler, President and CEO

Offshore development key to future of TAPS

Alaskans seized the opportunity to comment on America’s energy plan during Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s recent visit to Alaska. The Secretary held public hearings on the proposed Outer Continental Shelf leasing plan for energy resources and potential impacts of the development. At the Anchorage meeting, hundreds testified. The visit was significant for Alyeska because of the impact of eventual decisions on the future of the pipeline.  

Alyeska has delivered more than 15 billion barrels of oil from the North Slope during the past three decades. The 800-mile pipeline is critical to our country’s energy needs. However, TAPS faces challenges because of lower throughput due to decreasing production from existing fields. As production and throughput decline, pipeline challenges multiply. Our engineers are exploring these and designing possible technical solutions. The urgency of these solutions is demonstrated by the significant attention and resources from the TAPS owners.  

Alyeska is at a crossroads. We are acting swiftly and responsibly based on uncertain throughput projections. Offshore production would require investments to prepare the pipeline for Prudhoe Bay-like volumes of oil. Without leases moving forward, we will transform TAPS into a low-throughput pipeline — one that cannot handle large volumes of oil projected in the Chukchi and Beaufort. 

Plans that might lead to extracting additional crude from the Outer Continental Shelf are important to our company and the nation. Secretary Salazar’s decisions will impact the pipeline’s future. As we continue to operate and maintain this critical energy infrastructure, we support responsible exploration efforts that could result in increased throughput in TAPS and, in turn, see more energy delivered to the Lower 48.