President's Message
David Wight, President and CEO

Strategic Reconfiguration all about TAPS' future

This is an exciting time for Alyeska as we all work on assuring the future success of TAPS. This month’s feature story about our strategic reconfiguration project discusses our efforts to improve how we will operate the Trans Alaska Pipeline System into the future. Strategic reconfiguration will take a look at the best way to manage the physical assets we operate – the pipeline and the Valdez Marine Terminal.

Part of strategic reconfiguration for the pipeline includes the electrification and automation of the pump stations, changing each station’s power source to TAP generated electricity or commercial electric power. The plan includes upgrading our control systems. We’ve also undertaken an effort to study what changes should take place at our Valdez Marine Terminal to optimize our operational configuration for the future.

As our business continues to change, these initiatives should help Alyeska deliver Alaska’s oil from the North Slope in the safest and most efficient way possible.

In the coming months, we will share updates regarding the reconfiguration project. Very soon, you will start to see public interest around some of the amendments we will propose to our oil spill contingency plans along the pipeline. We’re proposing regional response centers and will have several discussions about this with Alaskans along the pipeline corridor and with the agencies that regulate our operations. It is important to stress that our commitment is to continue to meet all of our response requirements.

I am extremely confident in our efforts and plans for the future but I know challenges do exist. We’re in the process of making the final recommendations for a full project decision – which the companies that own TAPS will make early next year. We’re ensuring that our assumptions for the project make economic sense, that we meet our high standards for safety and operational integrity, and that we’re able to continue to move all oil that is available at Pump Station 1.

With the stability brought by our right of way renewal with the government, we can take a long look forward and take the necessary steps to continue to be a significant stakeholder in Alaska’s future.