FAIRBANKS, AK – SEPTEMBER 17, 2000 –  The Trans Alaska Pipeline System was successfully restarted at 12:25 p.m. today after a planned maintenance shutdown. The oil stoppage was originally scheduled to last 27 hours, but work crews experienced an hour and a half delay when they had to re-weld a section of the pipeline after a major repair in North Pole.

One of the primary projects undertaken during the shutdown was the replacement of a 48” mainline valve situated about 15 miles outside of Fairbanks in the city of North Pole.  Check Valve 74 was replaced because an instrumentation device used to detect any abnormalities in the pipe removed a vital part of the valve last July.  The damaged valve removed from the pipeline will be inspected, repaired and returned to Alyeska inventory.

The M2 Valve at Pump Station 9 in Delta was also isolated and removed during the shutdown. Engineers at Alyeska determined that though the M2 Valve was still operational at the time of its removal, it did not perform to optimal standards and should be removed and examined before it eventually failed.  The 48-inch ball valve is used to bypass the main line when a pig comes through the pump station.

In addition to the valve replacement, more than 80 other maintenance tasks were completed along the pipeline, at the pump stations and at the Valdez Marine Terminal.  The shutdown work was completed safely with no injury.

Thirty-three mainline valves were tested during the shutdown to check their internal sealing capabilities.  Alyeska began a comprehensive valve-testing program in 1996 and has now tested nearly all of the 177 mainline valves on the pipeline.  The testing will be complete in October when Aleyska stops the flow of oil from Prudhoe to Valdez again to examine the three untested valves.

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