Trans Alaska Pipeline Still Shutdown

The Trans Alaska Pipeline was shutdown Saturday after a ten barrel leak was discovered at a pump station located on the northern end of the pipeline in Prudhoe Bay.

Oil companies operating the pipeline have been forced to slow output to just 5 percent of their daily average of 640,000 barrels per day. The pipeline, more than 3 decades old, is becoming more expensive to maintain and today only handles a third of what it did in the 80’s.

The 800-mile pipeline moves oil from Prudhoe Bay oilfield to the port of Valdez in southern Alaska. Oil is being stored in Prudhoe Bay while the leak is being fixed. With millions of barrels of oil in storage at the port of Valdez, shipments have not yet been affected by the shutdown and tankers continue to load on schedule, leaving refiners feeling little or no impact from the leak.

The Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the operator of the pipeline, says that response crews have recovered between nine and ten barrels of leaked oil, which they say is 90 percent of what has leaked. In addition Alyeska also said that engineers are considering a plan to bypass the damaged section of pipe in order to quickly resume operations. Engineers expect the bypass to take less than five days.

The Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. is owned by companies with interests in Alaska’s North Slope and includes BP the majority holder, ConocoPhillips who holds about 28 percent and Exxon Mobil who holds about 20 percent.

The last time the pipeline was shutdown unexpectedly was in May when a power outage at a pump station ultimately caused an estimated 5,000 barrels to spill from a storage tank.