Alaska pipeline plans maintenance shutdown

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, June 19 (Reuters) - The Trans Alaska Pipeline System will shut down over the weekend so that several scheduled maintenance projects can be performed, the operator said Friday.

The shutdown is set to start on Saturday and expected to last up to 36 hours, said Alyeska Pipeline Service Co, operator of the 800-mile pipeline and its Valdez marine terminal.

Alyeska typically conducts one or two line-wide maintenance shutdowns each summer, allowing major projects to be coordinated and completed during the most favorable working conditions.

The pipeline shutdowns are also coordinated with North Slope oil producers' summer maintenance plans, Alyeska spokeswoman Michelle Egan said.

"We schedule them with the producers so that they can do their maintenance projects at the same time so we minimize the impact on production," she said.

A similar maintenance shutdown is scheduled for July 18-19, Egan said.

The biggest project planned this weekend is removal of a section of pipe and a disconnect from old equipment at a pump station in the foothills of the Brooks Range, Alyeska said.

That site, Pump Station 3, 104 miles south of Prudhoe Bay, has already been automated as part of Alyeska's system-wide reconfiguration program, Egan said.