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SERVS
Alyeska Pipeline Service Company’s Ship
Escort/Response Vessel System (SERVS) provides world-class escort
services to the TAPS tankers that transit the waters of Prince William
Sound. In addition to its prevention service, SERVS has developed
comprehensive protection and oil spill recovery strategies to protect
the waters of the Sound.
Shortly after the Exxon Valdez ran aground, the federal government and
the state of Alaska passed oil spill laws that strengthened tanker
regulations and Alyeska operations in Prince William Sound. Two of the
primary regulatory drivers were the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990 and
Alaska’s House Bill 567 requiring companies that ship crude oil to set
higher standards and a response plan that, at a minimum, required the
capacity for the recovery of 300,000 barrels of oil in 72 hours of an
incident involving the discharge of oil into U.S. waters. SERVS was
launched when the leadership of Alyeska worked with the marine shippers
who transport TAPS oil from Alaska to the West Coast to assemble assets
and to develop response plans to meet new prevention and response
requirements.
SERVS’ primary role is prevention. To this end, SERVS provides two
escort vessels — tugboats each with 10,200 hp — to every laden tanker
that travels through Prince William Sound. During the escort, one tug is
tethered to laden tankers between the Valdez Marine Terminal, through
Valdez Narrows and Valdez Arm to Buoy 9. These tugboats remain within a
distance of a quarter-mile of the tanker when performing escort duties,
keeping every tanker within visual sight and easy range for response.
Five of the tugs in the SERVS fleet are on the cutting edge of tugboat
technology. These five tugs are Prince William Sound and Alert class
vessels specifically designed for the demands of the Sound.
SERVS’ second function is to provide response capabilities that allow
Alyeska to meet the 300,000-barrel recovery capacity in 72 hours.
Alyeska is strongly positioned to respond to any incident and now meets
or exceeds both state and federal requirements with equipment in place
throughout Prince William Sound. Alyeska continuously trains to respond
to oil spill incidents. More than 300 professionally trained employees
are available to conduct land and water response operations and more
than 350 fishing vessels are contracted for incident response.
SERVS is at the forefront of prevention and response for U.S. marine
crude oil transportation, providing a first line of defense for the
waters of Prince William Sound and it maintains one of the world’s
largest inventories of oil spill response equipment.
Today, the mission of SERVS is to maintain a constant state of readiness
to assist tankers in the safe navigation through Prince William Sound
and to provide oil spill response services to the TAPS Marine Oil
Shippers, Valdez Marine Terminal and the pipeline in accordance with oil
spill response agreements and plans.
Primary Assets
- 11 Escort & Response Tugs
- 9 Oil Recovery Barges
- 108 Skimming Units
- 49 Miles of Various Boom
- 5 Hatchery Protection Sites
- 5 Response Centers
- 350+ Vessels Participating in
Fishing/Vessel Program
SERVS Capability
- Ability to recover 300,000 barrels
of oil in 72 hours
- On-water storage capacity of
900,000+ barrels of oil
- 2 state-of-the-art tug escorts for
every laden tanker transiting the waters of Prince William Sound
Learn more about SERVS by reading
the following fact sheets.
Last updated
March 30, 2009 |
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