President's Message
David Wight, President and CEO

Partnership is good for business, environment and community

Alyeska Pipeline Service Company is partnering with two Lynden Transport subsidiaries to both enhance our spill response capability in Prince William Sound and the Port of Valdez and to improve shipping services for Prince William Sound residents.

We have contracted to share an integrated tug and barge combination that Alyeska’s Ship Escort Response Vessel System (SERVS) will use for oil spill training exercises and to help respond in the event of an actual spill. Bering Marine Corporation owns the combination vessel and will use it to provide dedicated, weekly commercial freight service to Whittier, Cordova and other Prince William Sound communities. Alaska Marine Line, another Lynden Transport subsidiary, will operate the vessel for both companies.

The vessel combination is controlled by the 52-foot-long tug Krystal Sea, which is specially designed to lock onto the stern of the 202-foot-long barge Cordova Provider so that the two vessels operate as a single unit. The integrated vessel can carry 18 trailers or 1,800 tons. It uses a bow ramp to roll cargo on and off and is equipped with 1,800 feet of containment boom and an open water skimmer that can recover 440 barrels of spilled oil per hour. The double-hulled barge can store 10,000 barrels of crude oil in the event of a release and it meets all of the Oil Spill Contingency Plan requirements for operating in Prince William Sound.

This partnership benefits everybody involved because the vessel combination will get more use and its operating expenses will be distributed among multiple users.

It is not cost effective to use the tug and barge combination to move cargo around Prince William Sound. But sharing the equipment cost justifies both the dedicated freight service and the supplemental oil spill response capability.

We are proud to be part of this partnership that provides Prince William Sound with otherwise unaffordable benefits.