Alaskan pipeline set for milestone

FAIRBANKS, Alaska, July 10 (UPI) -- The Trans-Alaska oil pipeline system is set to pass a volume milestone this summer as plans commence to ease its reliance on North Slope oil reserves.

John Baldridge, manager of operator Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., said the project is in the midst of "significant changes" to handle lower volumes through the transit route.

The pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska, had an initial design capacity of 2 million barrels per day in the 1970s, though production from North Slope fields dropped off in the late 1980s.

Peak transits through the system had reached 2.1 million barrels of crude oil per day, though that level dropped off to 700,000 barrels in 2008, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports.

Technological improvements are needed to move lower volumes of oil through the Alaskan pipeline system as North Slope production declines.

The initial design capacity for pumping stations is not adequate to handle lower volumes of oil. Operators had spent millions recently to adjust the number of pumping stations from 10 to four.

Nevertheless, Alyeska said it was looking to make modifications to handle any increase in volume if new fields are discovered in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore fields in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

"We have the capability, with the new system, of going about 1 million barrels per day," Baldridge said.

The 800-mile pipeline is expected to deliver its 16 billionth barrel of oil at some point during the summer.