Valdez Marine Terminal Inventory Exceeds 94 percent

Valdez Marine Terminal Inventory Exceeds 94 percent Inventories at the Valdez Marine Terminal (VMT) exceeded 94 percent on Friday, November 12, 1999, without requiring producers to decrease North Slope oil production. Alyeska considers inventories at the VMT high when they exceed 75 percent. If inventories can not be adjusted in a timely manner, oil producers are asked to reduce North Slope production. This action was not required.

High inventories were influenced by a combination of three factors: inclement weather, unavailability of two crude oil storage tanks, and planned pipeline shutdown for maintenance. High winds between 15 and 25 knots at the Valdez Port, Narrows and Arm delayed tanker arrival and loading schedules. Two storage tanks at the VMT, which hold one million barrels of crude or the equivalent of one day’s oil volume through the pipeline or “throughput”, are out-of-service longer than originally anticipated for annual cleaning, maintenance and repairs. Since tanker scheduling must be determined with a long lead time to route tankers to the Port of Valdez, this delay directly impacted the actual versus anticipated inventories at the terminal for tanker loading. And finally, pipeline throughput was increased to reduce crude oil inventory in Pump Station 1 storage tanks so that oil producers would have ample storage capacity at Pump Station 1 for crude production during the planned pipeline shutdown.

Pipeline Shutdown For Maintenance

The trans-Alaska pipeline was shut down for scheduled maintenance on Saturday, November 13, 1999. The primary purpose of the 8-hour shutdown was to install new software that controls mainline valves. In addition, several mainline valves were tested as part of Alyeska’s on-going mainline valve leak testing program and miscellaneous maintenance was completed at pump stations. The shutdown began at 9:00 a.m. and maintenance work was complete by 5:00 p.m. At 5:21 p.m, the pipeline was restarted and full production was achieved by 6:30 p.m.

North End of Pipeline Shut Down

The North end of the Pipeline was shut down today, November 15, for approximately 20 minutes as a result of a wire coming loose while making an electrical connection in preparation for upgrade work being performed on the new Vapor Recovery System at Pump Station One.

Back to top