Snow pileup damages Alaska pipeline company’s massive Valdez oil tanks

Crews work on tank top snow removal on Tanks 12 and 14 in the East Tank Farm in Valdez on March 16, 2022.

It takes up to two weeks for a crew of 10 or 11 people to remove all the snow from each tank, though it’s not necessarily the company’s goal to completely clear all the tanks, Egan said. Alyeska is co-owned by affiliates of oil companies ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Hilcorp, Alaska’s major North Slope producers, and it’s responsible for moving roughly 500,000 barrels of crude a day down the pipeline.Each of the 14 crude oil storage tanks in the Valdez Marine Terminal’s east tank farm is 62 feet tall, and 1 acre wide. Photographed on Feb. 15, 2016.

Those valves are a part of a system used to manage vapors that come off the oil, which helps prevent too much or too little pressure from building up in the tanks. The snow that accumulated on the tanks this winter created enough downward and outward force to knock off 10 valves, Alyeska said. But while the amount of snow was unusual, particularly for the past few years, it’s also not unprecedented, Schantz said — particularly in Valdez, which has the highest average snowfall for any Alaska town near sea level.

Each of the 14 crude oil storage tanks in the Valdez Marine Terminal’s east tank farm is 62 feet tall, and 1 acre wide. Photographed on Feb. 15, 2016. Workers also wear traction devices and are roped to the tanks to protect from falls. Four “first aid injuries” have happened after workers slipped while removing snow, Alyeska said in its email to employees.

Since then, Alyeska has made safety-driven changes to its snow removal procedure. Workers start by cutting blocks of snow from the top of the tank, then slide them down chutes, rather than starting from the edge and working upward.Schantz said her watchdog group, the citizens advisory council, will be looking into Alyeska’s preparedness once the snow removal is finished.

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