[bratticus]

Trans Alaska pipeline shut down for repair work
January 15, 2011
Reuters

ANCHORAGE - The Trans Alaska Pipeline System shut early on Saturday so crews could complete repairs that will allow restoration of normal oil shipments.

The operator of the 1,280-kilometre line, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., said the shutdown, from 12:07 a.m., was expected to last 36 hours, time for crews to install a 48-metre bypass line around a site where a leak was discovered a week ago.

... At the site of the oil leak, crews have recovered about 257 barrels, or 10,800 gallons of crude oil, Alyeska and regulators reported. Crews are able to vacuum up about 2 gallons per minute. The oil has leaked onto a basement floor in a pump building but has not been discovered outside the building, officials said.

Of course none of the oil got into the soil since it never does until someone can prove it did and who's going to do that?

[bratticus]

BP fixes ESPO crude for USWC on Alaska snag: sources
By Joshua Schneyer - Reuters
Sat Jan 15, 2011 10:28am EST

... Meanwhile, crude in storage in Alaska's Valdez terminal had dwindled to below 20 percent of tank capacity as of early Friday, an oil industry source in Alaska estimated.

[Hawkcreek]

Trans Alaska pipeline shut down for repair work
... At the site of the oil leak, crews have recovered about 257 barrels, or 10,800 gallons of crude oil, Alyeska and regulators reported. Crews are able to vacuum up about 2 gallons per minute. The oil has leaked onto a basement floor in a pump building but has not been discovered outside the building, officials said.

Of course none of the oil got into the soil since it never does until someone can prove it did and who's going to do that?

Come on up to the slope and you will discover that the oil companies release less oil into the environment than any typical city in America. And they do have watchdogs in place to report any observable spill. If you saw brand new trucks idling with a containment basin in place under the engine, you would understand the emphasis they place on not spilling any oil ever.
The real tragedy is that in most of America people go on pouring crap down the drains and thinking nothing of it.

[Plantagenet]

Its too bad the democrats won't let Alaska develop ANWR.....

... the oil companies on the slope ... don't believe that any big new fields will be economical to develop in the future -

Yes.

Thats because the democrats won't let Alaska develop ANWR.

[bratticus]

9% or 15% ?

WSJ: 9%

Alaska Pipeline Closes Drop in Production by BP, Others Threatens to Push Oil Toward $100 a Barrel ... Total production on the North Slope is around 630,000 barrels a day—about 9% of total domestic U.S. output.

Marketwatch: 15%

BP shares fall on Alaska pipeline shutdown North Shore producers forced to suspend 95% of production ... The shut pipeline carries around 15% of U.S. domestic oil production. Crude-oil futures moved higher. Crude futures recover, move back toward $89 mark.

I think I figured this out. It's 15% of output but 9% of consumption.

[bratticus]

[Hawkcreek]

Its too bad the democrats won't let Alaska develop ANWR.....

... the oil companies on the slope ... don't believe that any big new fields will be economical to develop in the future -

Yes.

Thats because the democrats won't let Alaska develop ANWR.

And W wouldn't let them develop it either during his 6 years of total control of all branches of the government??
Sure --

[Plantagenet]

the democrats won't let Alaska develop ANWR

And W wouldn't let them develop it either...Sure --

You don't understand how the government works.

W supported opening ANWR but the democrats filibustered to death every attempt to get a law through Congress to open it during his administration, just as they've blocked, filibustered, and vetoed every effort to open ANWR though the last 30+ years..

Why deny the truth? The democrats won't let Alaska develop ANWR.

[Hawkcreek]

the democrats won't let Alaska develop ANWR

And W wouldn't let them develop it either...Sure --

You don't understand how the government works.

W supported opening ANWR but the democrats filibustered to death every attempt to get a law through Congress to open it during his administration, just as they've blocked, filibustered, and vetoed every effort to open ANWR though the last 30+ years..

Why deny the truth? The democrats won't let Alaska develop ANWR.

I do understand how the government works. The only noteworthy filibuster took place when a senator tried to reopen the drilling for ANWR by hooking that into a defense appropriations bill. That was filibustered, and rightly so. The typical methods of discussion and approval of a motion should be used, not trying to sneak it in via another spending bill.
Yes, opening ANWR couldn't be done using the normal tactics, which if you believe in the Democratic process, should be ok, even with hardcore conservatives.

Of course, those who refuse to admit that our country is owned by our corporate masters, or that both the Democrats and Republicians leaders are worthless crap, will not agree with me, because I do believe that both sides are worthless crap-bags (except maybe for Ron Paul).

[Plantagenet]

the democrats won't let Alaska develop ANWR

I do believe that both sides are worthless crap-bags (except maybe for Ron Paul).

That doesn't change the fact that it is the democrats who, for 30+ years, have blocked every legislative attempt to open ANWR.

[Hawkcreek]

the democrats won't let Alaska develop ANWR

I do believe that both sides are worthless crap-bags (except maybe for Ron Paul).

That doesn't change the fact that it is the democrats who, for 30+ years, have blocked every effort to open ANWR.

That doesn't change the TRUTH that it is the democratic process that has blocked efforts to open ANWR.
Republicians like it when things go their way, and bitch about it when democracy goes against their wishes.
And they are still blind to the real reasons for things being so screwed up. Playing a continual chorus of "Hooray for our side" , and not realizing that you are just playing into the hands of the ones who would rather have you pissed at the democrats rather than the real dirtbags in control.
How's that been working out for you?

[Plantagenet]

the democrats, for 30+ years, have blocked every effort to open ANWR.

it is the democratic process that has blocked efforts to open ANWR.

The historical record is clear. The democrats oppose opening ANWR and they've successfully blocked it for 30 years.

[bratticus]

The promise of limiting the second complete shutdown to only 36 hours never came true.

Alaska pipeline set for late Sunday or Monday open

... "The tentative timeline for the pipeline to restart is late tonight or early tomorrow," said Stefani Bell, a spokeswoman for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co on Sunday. "This time is tentative and may change."

... Alyeska had hoped this second shutdown would last for only 36 hours, but the work was taking longer due to bad weather and "because this is such a complex project," Bell said.

[Plantagenet]

the work was taking longer due to bad weather..

It went as low as -48 in central Alaska last night (not counting windchill).

[TheDude]

Here's a 1987 article about a Georgia Dem Rep who actually spent time hiking about in ANWR, was a member of the committee that would decide on Reagan's Interior Department proposal to drill the thing up, and was a fence sitter after his direct experience with the Refuge, none of which prevented those tree hugging Democrat fags from keeping us dependent on the Saudi petro teat, moo ha ha ha.

Anybody ever proposed drilling extended reach wells from platforms in the KIC area? Or outside of ANWR itself, for that matter. Looks to me like you could do a fair bit of poking around the edges, and I assume caribou have no access to owning mineral rights in Alaska.

[Plantagenet]

Anybody ever proposed drilling extended reach wells from platforms in the KIC area? Or outside of ANWR itself, for that matter. Looks to me like you could do a fair bit of poking around the edges, and I assume caribou have no access to owning mineral rights in Alaska.

Sure.

With modern directional drilling techniques the drill pad footprint to develop ANWR would be tiny. You could even do it from an offshore platform....just directionally drill back to the shoreline. There would be ZERO impact on the caribou from an offshore platform or small man-made island situated several hundred meters off the coast.

The whole "caribou" issue is a farce anyway since no one can find any negative impacts on caribou. The caribou population at Prudhoe Bay has tripled since development began----.

[TheDude]

Your local Fish and Wildlife begs to differ: Arctic Refuge: Oil and Gas Issues

Although technological advances in oil and gas exploration and development have reduced some of the harmful environmental effects associated with those activities, oil and gas development remains an intrusive industrial process.

For the record, I do agree that some exploration of ANWR would be worthwhile. Dunno about building artificial islands but it seems like some onshore extended wells couldn't do any harm, seeing's how they're drilling the crap out of the North Slope anyway. If you look at a map wells going 8 miles in could cover a fair amount of the edges. But the fact no one's moving on this idea suggests to me that it either isn't economical from the companies' perspective, or is verboten under the guidelines of the Refuge in the first place. Or maybe the lack of modern seismic scares them off. Or they think that, even if they could justify some exploratory wells, they know they'd never be able to lay pipe to extract the oil in the first place, so fuggget about it, as they say on the Sopranos.

[bratticus]

Obviously all the decent reporters are off today leaving only ones that write like this:

Alyeska Completes Repair of Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline
January 17, 2011, 10:56 AM EST
By Rachel Graham and Yee Kai Pin

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. said it has completed repairs on its Trans Alaska Pipeline, which carries 11 percent of U.S. crude production.

So not 9% or 15% this time but 11%.

Repairs were completed at 3:40 a.m. local time, Michael Levshakoff, a spokesman for Alyeska said by phone from Anchorage, declining to say when the link would resume flows.

Who's local time? If you meant AKST would it have been hard to print that?

The leak probably occurred at Pump Station 1, according to Alyeska.

ORLY?

The operator intends to resume flows through the line “early” today local time, according to a situation report issued by the Unified Command in Fairbanks, Alaska, which was formed in response to the leak and includes Alyeska, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

AKST is GMT-9 so they have about three hours left after this post before "early" would be a stretch.

[Hawkcreek]

Thought this was interesting.

"June 29, 2011 --- Vol. 17, No. 58 June 2011
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alyeska issues TAPS low flow study report
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., operator of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, has issued a report from a study assessing the potential impact of low oil throughput volumes on pipeline operations. As oil throughput in the pipeline declines, as a consequence of declining production from North Slope oil fields, the temperature of the fluids in the pipeline will become progressively lower, causing several problems including the formation of ice inside the line and the deposition of wax on the pipeline walls.

The low flow study has concluded that problems of this type are likely to occur at throughputs of between 600,000 and 300,000 barrels per day. Water will likely separate from the oil at throughputs of 500,000 barrels per day or less, with ice forming, potentially damaging pumps and other equipment at throughputs below 550,000 barrels per day. Throughputs below 350,000 barrels per day could cause soil around buried sections of the line to freeze, causing frost heaves.

Current throughput is around 600,000 barrels per day.

“The study findings make it clear that the technical challenges compound and increase as throughput declines,” said Alyeska President Tom Barrett. “The simplest, most direct and cost effective path to dealing with these challenges is to stop the decline by adding more oil.”

Alaska North Slope crude oil production averaged 604,508 barrels per day in May, down 4.66 percent from an April average of 634,028 bpd. And on more than a dozen days during the month, beginning May 13 and including May 31, production dropped below the 600,000-bpd mark. "

See full story in July 3 issue of Petroleum News, available online at 11 a.m., Friday, July 1 at http://www.PetroleumNews.com

It may not be too long before the 600,000 barrels a day from the slope may be a lot more expensive to pump.
I worked on the Alyeska Pipeline Strategic Reconfiguration project which lowered the throughput capability of the line by replacing turbine driven pumps with variable speed pumps. At the time no one talked about other possible problems related to a lower flow.
Should be interesting.