$250 Million TAPS Upgrade Approved
Alyeska starting biggest TAPS project since construction

The five Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) owner companies approved Alyeska’s $250 million pump station and control systems upgrade plan.

This project represents a giant technologic leap and will reduce infrastructure and simplify operations to reduce work needs and enhance safety, operational integrity and environmental performance.

This reconfiguration project requires the single biggest pipeline investment since construction and involves installing electrically driven pumps at four pump stations and upgrading and automating key control systems.

These changes should reduce TAPS’ annual operating costs by approximately 10 percent and eliminate maintenance costs for equipment and facilities that are no longer needed. These changes will eliminate 350 jobs out of 1,600 Alyeska staff and contractor positions. Reductions should be evenly split between staff and contractors and will be instituted during the next two years. About half of the job reductions will come from operations and maintenance and half from support functions in Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Pipeline reconfiguration will reposition maintenance and spill responders to regional centers at Prudhoe Bay, Galbraith, Prospect, Fairbanks, Glennallen and Valdez, with satellite field offices at the Yukon River and Delta Junction. Initial spill response time to some sections of the pipeline will increase, including the areas near Pump Station 3, about 100 miles south of Prudhoe Bay, and near Pump Station 12, between Glennallen and Valdez.

“At the same time, we don’t expect any initial response-time changes for 106 of 217 key sites identified by regulators,” said Alyeska spokesperson Mike Heatwole. “And, reconfiguration should decrease response times to 61 of the remaining sites and increase them to 50 sites.”

Overall, TAPS’ effective spill response time should remain unchanged. There will be no reduction in initial responders. Alyeska will pre-position response equipment at critical points along the pipeline. It also has some 220 strategically located containment areas that would mitigate damage by accumulating any spilled oil behind berms or in natural features such as gullies or basins.

Reconfiguration will yield other environmental benefits. According to an environmental assessment released by the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, pump station electrification should reduce air emissions by two-thirds, eliminate pump station fuel hauling and storage risks and reduce the impact of day-to-day operations, such as noise and wastewater handling.

The updated pump stations will use modular designs that can be scaled to accommodate pipeline throughput changes. This flexibility will increase economic and environmental efficiency and create a simplified, fit-for-purpose pipeline system that is less expensive to operate.