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News Bulletin 1371
Mile Post 588 - Earthquake Damage
Assessment Update 7
ANCHORAGE, AK – November 5, 2002 6:00 PM
- Alyeska plans to restart the trans-Alaska pipeline at approximately 8:00 AM Wednesday pending the successful completion of the designated work tasks.
- Maintenance and engineering crews have made a myriad of repairs and conducted dozens of tests on the pipeline. Though almost all of the projects and tests identified as critical to the start up have been completed, a hand full of work tasks remain before the work necessary for the restart is complete.
- Crews will continue to work through the night to finish the final tasks.
- Though the pipeline will not start full operations today, crews have made excellent progress and continue to work on the restart plan. That plan must be complete and approved before the pipeline will be restarted.
- Alyeska is using oil stored in the tanks at Pump One to fill a portion of the pipeline. This limited pumping will make room for oil coming in from the North Slope oil producers.
- A limited amount of oil is also being pumped to the Williams refinery in North Pole. Williams uses North Slope crude in the production of jet fuel.
- 75% of the projects deemed critical to start up have been
completed.
- Excavation of RGV 91 is complete. Integrity testing on the
North end of the RGV is complete. Testing on the South end has
begun.
- Oil spill response crews from Rampart and Stevens village
are on stand-by.
- 90 % of the cribbing (temporary support) has been placed
under areas of the pipeline affected by the earthquake.
- Soil gas sampling has been completed in the Mile Post 588
area. No leaks have been detected.
- Two sections of the pipeline have been pressure tested prior
to the preparation for restart. No leaks have been detected in
these sections of the pipe.
- Temporary support (cribbing) has been placed under the pipe
near mile post 588.
- Crews are preparing to place temporary support under the
pipe south of milepost 588.
- Based on the output from the Earthquake Monitoring System, a
list of approximately 160 items has been prepared for
inspection and evaluation prior to restarting the pipeline. Of
the 160, 95 of those items have been evaluated.
- Soil surface above Remote Gate Valve 91 showed several
fissures following the quake. Excavation and evaluation at
this location is underway.
- The inspections are being done by eight teams of engineers
and pipeline maintenance specialists with in depth knowledge
of TAPS design and maintenance requirements and with
earthquake damage assessment skills.
- Follow-up actions and repairs required to assure the system
safety and integrity will be completed prior to restarting the
pipeline.
- Since the earthquake, one tanker has been loaded out of
Valdez. The oil inventory, already low at the time of the
quake, has been depleted. There is no tanker loading taking
place at this time.
- Tanker loading can resume approximately 24 hours after the
restarting of the pipeline.
- North Slope crude shippers should be contacted for further
details of shipping schedules.
- Crews are installing temporary support beneath the sections
of pipe that were affected by the earthquake.
- The pipeline is shut down and no leaks have been detected at
this time.
- The Incident Commander initiated a Joint Information Center
at 7:21 AM.
- Crews are on site and are applying temporary supports for
above-ground pipe in the MP 588 and MP 589 areas.
- Engineering assessments of the pipeline, pipeline bridges,
and other supporting structures are underway.
- At approximately 1:12 PM (AKST) on Sunday, November 3, 2002
an earthquake registering at a magnitude of 7.9 occurred
approximately 45 miles E/NE of Cantwell.
- The pipeline’s Earthquake Monitoring System responded to
the quake and immediately began the process that would
automatically shutdown the pipeline.
- Before the alarm triggered the automatic shutdown, Alyeska
personnel responded to the alarm and initiated a manual,
controlled shutdown of the pipeline beginning at approximately
1:50 PM.
- Helicopter crews immediately began aerial surveillance and
ground crews were mobilized to begin inspection of the
pipeline. Although there is no apparent damage to the
integrity of the line, pipeline support structures near MP 588
were displaced during the quake.
- The portions of the Vertical Support Members displaced
during the quake were the "shoes" which allow the
pipeline to slide along the crossbeams in between the vertical
supports.
- At eight locations, there are "shoes" on the
ground and at five locations there are crossbeams on the
ground. The shoes and crossbeams are part of the support
assembly for above-ground pipe.
- It has not been determined how long the pipeline will be
shutdown but a more accurate estimate will be released after a
comprehensive review of the affected area.
- The earthquake was:
--45 miles E/NE of Cantwell
--50 miles E/SE of Healy
--66 miles W/SW of Delta Junction
--92 miles S of Fairbanks
Most Recent Developments in Bold Lettering
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