Study Released On Impact of Low-Flow in Alaska Pipeline -- Not a Bakken Story

Link here.

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.’s ‘Low Flow Impact Study’ of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System warns of potential operations and safety issues if flow rate on the line drops below 350,000 b/d. TAPS, completed in 1977, transported 2 million b/d at its peak. It currently carries 650,000 b/d of oil from Alaska’s North Slope to Valdez, from where it is shipped to US West coast refineries.

The study identified water dropout and corrosion, ice formation, wax deposition, geotechnical, and other concerns posing operational risks to TAPS at throughput between 600,000 b/d and 300,000 b/d, but concluded the line could be operated safely down to 350,000 b/d if a number of issues are addressed.

And if one is concerned about losing flow from this pipeline, remember two other pipelines: one is about to be lost altogether, and another one will be lost due to that: the Keystone XL, and the Cushing MarketLink.

The contrarian bet is centred on a surge in oil production in the US Midwest, particularly from the new developments in North Dakota's Bakken basin, and Canada, combined with a lack of pipelines to evacuate the glut to refining centres on the US gulf coast.

While many pipelines feed oil into Cushing, the Oklahoma City that serves as the pricing point for WTI crude, none takes the crude south to the refining hub on the US Gulf of Mexico.

 The only problem with that contrarian view, however, is the likelihood that the Keystone XL is dead. It ain't gonna happen under this administration.