The lask link of the pipeline: Alyeska forms deep, safe relationship with loading arms.

• Author: Cutler, Debbie

Alyeska, a household name in Alaska, is making strides to improve safety, even though it was not always thought of as an environmentally conscious company. It wasn't too many years back Alyeska was exposed for harassing and intimidating "whistle-blowers" employed at the Valdez Marine Terminal because they pointed out "cover-ups" in electrical violations that could have resulted in serious risk to workers and the environment. Corrective action on various violations statewide cost Alyeska about $300 million and was monitored by the government. But today's Alyeska now hopes to project an image of an environmentally friendly company. And as such, they have introduced a new-to-Alaska maintenance program, RCM2, to further ensure oil export is done without fouling the land or sea.

By the time Prudhoe Bay oil reaches Valdez, it has traveled 800 miles across three mountain ranges and more than 800 rivers and streams through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, an $8 billion, 48-inch pipe that has been in operation since 1977. Valdez is the last link of the pipeline. But once there, the black gold's journey is far from over.

The crude oil, about 25 percent of the total produced in the U.S., is transferred to tanker ships from berths at the $10 billion Valdez Marine Terminal, owned and operated by Alyeska, a consortium owned primarily by Exxon, British Petroleum and ARCO. The terminal, located at the Port of Valdez at Prince William Sound, has fed oil into more than 13,000 tankers - each now escorted by an ocean-going tug and 210-foot escort response vessel. The escort service is there as assurance the ships enter and leave the 800-foot deep sound without incident.

It is the job of Alyeska's 16 crude loading arms to transfer the oil from land to sea. These arms, two of which use a vapor recovery system, can load oil onto tankers at a rate of 27,500 barrels per arm, per hour, for a total of 110,000 barrels per hour. On average, about 1.25 million barrels of crude oil are loaded into tankers each day. And about 70 tankers per month are filled, each spending about 22 hours at the loading berths.

That's a lot of responsibility resting on each 45,000-pound loading arm and the staff who maintain and operate the system. That's partially why Alyeska chose to use the marine loading arms and Chicksan hydraulics system at Berth Number 4 to test a new-to-the-state Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM2) program, designed to prevent disaster before disaster happens.

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