SERVS Assists in Vessel Rescue

On Monday, January 3, Alyeska Pipeline’s Ship Escort/Response Vessel System (SERVS) responded to a call for assistance by the United States Coast Guard when the tug Malolo lost steering in the vicinity of Bligh Reef. The tug was towing a barge loaded with product destined for the Valdez Petro Star Refinery. The enhanced tractor tug, Tan’erliq, inbound from a tanker escort, reached the Malolo, put a line up and towed the tug and barge into Port Valdez. Once tug and barge where in port, SERVS docking/escort tugs Sea Venture and Pathfinder were dispatched to secure Malolo and barge at the Valdez Petroleum Dock. The Malolo was carrying approximately 64,000 gallons of diesel. The barge was carrying 77 barrels of jet fuel, 500 barrels of gasoline and 2108 barrels of aviation fuel.

Pipeline Reliability High for 1999

December Reliability: 99.58%
1999 Reliability: 99.60%
December Throughput: 33,879,000 barrels
December Daily Average: 1,093,000 barrels per day

1999 Throughput: 393,523,000 barrels
1999 Daily Average: 1,078,000 barrels per day

The pipeline “Reliability Factor” is the amount of time the pipeline is operating and available to transport North Slope Crude oil.

Successful Y2K Transition

Alyeska Pipeline Service Company completed system-wide integrity testing to verify proper function of all mission and business critical systems for the pipeline and the Valdez Marine Terminal. No problems were found and all systems are operating as expected. Alyeska Pipeline transitioned through the year change without incident. System-wide integrity testing is a series of tests and checks to ensure that systems that appear to have successfully rolled over through the Y2K date are actually working as designed. Key systems and components were shut down and restarted, and checks were performed to verify that information was consistent before and after restarts.

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