President's Message
David Wight, President and CEO

Strategic Reconfiguration project groundwork underway

In 1968, oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay. That discovery elevated Alaska’s role in supporting the nation’s economy and led to the creation of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company to design, build, maintain and operate the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS).

The first oil began flowing through the pipeline on June 20, 1977 and TAPS has since safely transported more than 14 billion barrels of crude oil 800 miles from Alaska’s North Slope to the Valdez Marine Terminal.

Today, after 27 years of operation, TAPS carries some 17 percent of all domestically produced crude oil and has a strong record in terms of reliability, spill-performance and safety.

Alyeska intends to maintain this level of performance as we implement our $250 million pipeline reconfiguration project. During the next two years we will install electrically driven crude oil pumps at Pump Stations 1, 3, 4 and 9, and upgrade and automate many TAPS control systems.

The groundwork for this project is already underway. During the August pipeline shutdown, Pump Stations 1 and 3 were modified to allow tie-in with the new electric motor driven mainline pumps.

In September, we began exploratory pad excavation with a special air-knifing technique to verify that no in-pad piping or electrical was present at new pump module or other new facility support pile locations. This air-knifing process minimizes environmental impact and is less intrusive than traditional ground excavation. It also helps us maintain TAPS’ environmental reliability and safety performance by avoiding any possibility of cutting through existing pipe or cables.

This project is expected to contribute to TAPS’ successful operations for another 30 years. It will increase Alaska’s competitiveness in international energy markets by increasing TAPS’ operating efficiency and better adapting the pipeline to meet changing North Slope oil production rates. Completion of the project (with the exception of pump station 1) is scheduled for the end of 2005.