Alaska oil pipeline a 'risk to public safety,' feds tell Alyeska

Federal pipeline regulators are telling the trans-Alaska pipeline operator to begin major work to make the 800-mile line less susceptible to accidents as the amount of oil flowing through it declines.

Their demands this month were triggered by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's ongoing investigation of the oil spill and emergency shutdowns of the pipeline in January. The culprit was a cement-encased, buried pipe that was discovered leaking into a basement at Pump Station 1, near Prudhoe Bay, on Jan. 8.

Officials with Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the pipeline operator, could not immediately be reached for comment.

To deal with the leak, the trans-Alaska pipeline was shut down twice for a total of 142 hours. Due to limited storage, oil companies had to severely curtail output from North Slope oil fields, disrupting as much as $300 million worth of production.

In an enforcement letter earlier this month, the safety administration told Alyeska that "multiple conditions exist on your pipeline facility that pose a pipeline integrity risk to public safety, property or the environment."

The agency also found fault with the company's procedures to restart the pipeline after a protracted shutdown.

Among the problems the agency found:

• Some buried lines at pipeline pump stations cannot be inspected for corrosion. (Neither the agency nor Alyeska have publicly stated yet how many of these buried lines exist.)

· Alyeska cannot extract or launch pipeline cleaning devices in the line anywhere between the northern foothills of the Brooks Range and the Valdez oil tanker port, even though this 600-mile-plus segment is susceptible to freezing or waxy buildup that can damage the line and cause spills.

· The company's approved plan to restart the pipeline after a lengthy shutdown is problematic and needs to be revised. One of the problems - it takes too long to move equipment to the required locations.

· Alyeska does not have sufficient storage capability on the North Slope to hold produced oil when the pipeline shuts down. The limited storage creates risks for major interruption of oil field production and additional spills.

In its letter, the pipeline agency proposed eight specific safety measures for Alyeska to take this year to resolve those concerns. The proposed measures include a third-party investigation of the Pump Station 1 leak and evaluate the need for more storage tanks at the line's pump stations.

Alyeska must respond in 30 days to the letter. It can appeal the agency's safety measures and it can ask for more time to implement them.

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