Integrity Management on TAPS
Monitoring permafrost

The 800-mile pipeline has its origin at the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and its terminus at the ice-free Port of Valdez. The pipeline route is underlain with continuous permafrost in the North where the climate is the coldest. South of the Brooks Range, across interior Alaska, the permafrost is discontinuous, transitioning to sporadic permafrost along the southern portion of the Copper River Basin. Alyeska has focused much of its attention where the permafrost is discontinuous and sporadic because it is closer to its melting temperature. Climate and ground temperature monitoring is ongoing in order to track and appropriately respond to temperature changes. One of the ways Alyeska evaluates these changes is through its operation of 43 instrumented thermal monitoring sites along the pipeline, where permafrost temperatures are recorded three or four times a day, 365 days a year.