News Bulletin 1389
Alyeska Wins Major Pipeline Awards
American Petroleum Institute Recognizes TAPS with Coveted Honors

Anchorage, AK – Alyeska Pipeline Service Company has won the 2005 American Petroleum Institute (API) Distinguished Environmental and Safety Award and—for the fourth year in a row—the Large Operator Environmental Award, two of the highest industry honors a pipeline company can receive.

The API Distinguished Environmental and Safety Award recognizes Alyeska’s record in community outreach, actively promoting public safety, achieving sustainable results in environmental and safety performance, and demonstrating a forward-looking program for integrity management. This award is only given to one operator each year and the criteria is so challenging that last year the review committee felt no operator deserved the recognition for 2004 performance.

“We’ve sought the coveted distinguished operator award for many years and I’m very proud of our workforce for achieving this recognition from our industry peers,” Kevin Hostler, Alyeska President and CEO, said. “This award emphasizes the values we place on safe operations, environmental stewardship, regulatory compliance, and our commitment to help improve the communities around us.”

The Large Operator Environmental Award recognizes spill prevention and containment performance and is based on API data that considers the volume and numbers of spills per mile of pipeline. The 800-mile Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) did not have a spill of Alaska North Slope crude oil in 2005, and has not had a crude spill from the pipeline system since September 2003 when 10 gallons spilled to containment at the Valdez Marine Terminal. Alyeska was the only company to receive the large operator award for 2005 environmental performance.

Alyeska was also recognized for Most Improved Safety Performance over three years, based on OSHA standards. To qualify for the award, Alyeska had to demonstrate a 25 percent reduction in OSHA recordable rates.

API Pipeline Awards started in 2000 to recognize liquid pipeline companies that make the greatest advancement in worker safety and environmental performance. Alyeska’s spill monitoring, recording and tracking techniques exceed industry standards, and its reliability rate—the amount of time the system is available to transport oil—is one of the best in the petroleum industry. The award was announced at the Annual API Pipeline Conference held April 25-27 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Average TAPS throughput in 2005 was 891,104 barrels per day for a total of 325 million barrels. Currently, less than one million barrels move through the pipeline per day, representing approximately 17 percent of the nation’s crude oil production.
 

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