Upgrades made during planned shutdown

Alyeska Pipeline Service Company stopped oil flow through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) on August 16 and 17 to prepare Pump Stations 1 and 3 for the installation of new, electrically driven pumps and other upgrades.

Crews took advantage of the long-planned shutdown to simultaneously work on a variety of other projects along the 800-mile-long pipeline, from testing and maintaining remote gate valves to replacing two pig trap valves. Remote gate valves are remote controlled block valves designed to close in the event of an emergency, thereby limiting the size of a potential spill at any point along the pipeline. Pig trap valves control oil flow around pig launching and receiving facilities. Pigs are devices
that are inserted into the pipeline to do everything from inspections to maintenance and cleaning functions.

Alyeska plans to install electrically driven oil pumps at Pump Stations 1, 3, 4 and 9 as part of its ongoing pipeline modernization project, known as Strategic Reconfiguration. The project is one of the biggest TAPS investments since construction and will upgrade and standardize four pump stations, increase automation, simplify operations and increase Alyeska's ability to accommodate changing pipeline throughput demands from North Slope producers. Reconfiguration will extend TAPS' economic life through increased efficiencies, while maintaining safety, integrity and environmental performance standards.

The shutdown coincided with oil producers' routine maintenance on North Slope production facilities.