Alyeska Column

From Alyeska Pipeline

By THOMAS BARRETT

A central topic of this year’s Legislative session in Juneau is what to do about declining throughput in the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. This ongoing problem drives much of our daily work at Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. We all want the pipeline to safely transport Alaskan crude oil long into the future. That’s the best outcome for both our owner companies and for Alaska. From our pump stations, to our Valdez Marine Terminal, to our urban offices in Anchorage and Fairbanks, to the Capitol in Juneau, there is a shared understanding among Alaskans that bringing on more oil production from new and legacy fields is the best way to extend the life of the pipeline, maintain the health of the Alaska economy and sustain domestic crude oil supply.

The challenges from declining throughput confront us today. Until new production is on line, Alyeska will continue to apply our professional expertise and innovation to address the pipeline’s unique challenges, as we have for decades. We will research the smart paths forward and implement effective solutions.

Because the pipeline is so critical for all Alaskans, we all have a role to play toward its successful future. For the people of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, that means continued commitment to safe operations, environmental stewardship, reliability and efficiency. For Alaskans, it means understanding our challenges and the importance of the pipeline to our state. For our elected officials, it means enacting laws that will help drive an increase in production and reinforce the prosperity of Alaska. At Alyeska, we will continue to do our job every day.

We look to our fellow Alaskans to help us out by supporting steps needed to stop the decline in the line.

• Thomas Barrett is president of the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

• Submitted by Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. Communications

Alyeska Pipeline Service Company’s Fire/Rescue Brigade won the overall skills competition at this year’s Alaska Fire Conference. This is the 13th consecutive year the brigade was named overall winner. The competition took place September 22 in Sitka.

Alyeska Firefighter Kurtis Carnahan conpetes in the fire extinguisher event. Photo courtesy of Alyeska Pipeline Co.

The Alaska Fire Conference is an annual meeting of agencies such as the Alaska State Firefighters Association, the Alaska Fire Chiefs Association, the Alaska Fire Standards Council and the Alaska Arson Investigators Association. This year marked the conference’s 50th anniversary.

Taught by local and national instructors, conference attendees received more than 280 hours of hands-on fire training.

“This annual event offers a unique training opportunity for our team as it allows them to interact and train with other state-wide departments,” said Valdez Terminal Director Scott Hicks. “This event also provides an opportunity to demonstrate and share how to prepare and respond to an event, as well as learn new strategies and techniques for emergency response.”

For more than 20 years, members of the Alyeska brigade have attended the conference. The conference is not mandatory for Alyeska employees, but is supported by the company and benefits Alyeska as a whole.

“Here at Alyeska, we are very fortunate and extremely grateful to have this dedicated team on the terminal,” Hicks said. “Our team has done an exceptional job of utilizing operational discipline tools for their task identification, procedure development and then training to those standards.”

Conference attendees from fire departments all over the state attended the Sitka event. Photo courtesy of the Alyeska Pipeline Co.

Alyeska’s competition team is comprised of both Alyeska technicians and Doyon Universal Services fire team employees who serve on the brigade at the Valdez Marine Terminal. This year, brigade members in attendance were Chief Sean Wisner; Captain Jennifer Stubblefield; Captain Chris Steeves; Lieutenant Justin Major; Lieutenant Kurtis Carnahan; Firefighter Brandon Reese and Firefighter Greg Matthieu.

Alyeska had 100 percent participation in all conference training exercises and competition events. Several Alyeska brigade members took first place in categories such as ladder raise, make and break, bunker gear and self-contained breathing apparatus. As a result of teamwork and dedication, Alyeska’s team was named overall winner.

“Each brigade member who attended the conference and participated in the competition represented Alyeska in the highest regard,” Wisner said. “These individuals showed a level of camaraderie that is unprecedented in the fire service.”