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At peak flow in 1988, 11 pump stations helped to move 2.1 million barrels of oil a day.

Since then, many pump stations were shut down or put on backup status. The four stations that normally operate were modernized during the Electrification & Automation project, I helped in a minor way with review and correction of drawings in 2006~2007 from SNC until my company took the project over for the electrical work to complete and As-Built.

http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/TAPS/PipelineOperations/PumpStations

The new pumps and drives are not designed to move 2 MMBPD, but are modular in design and the entire system is capable of moving that amount again with some significant expansion dollars.

In 2014, the average throughput for the year was 513,441 BPD

http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/TAPS/PipelineOperations/Throughput

I’m not current on cost to run. More barrels per day would significantly reduce the cost per barrel, but also require significant investment dollars to complete the upgrades. The Electrification & Automation project was are rather dismal grouping of frantic sexual activity.

In many ways, the review of the execution and planning is a great educational tool of how not to run a project. When working on a Masters in Project Management, the director of the program was trying to get someone at retirement age in Alaska to help put that together. He needed someone informed in the Alaska Oil/Gas work, but it would be a career ending assignment, hence retirement age.

I did not realize that it is only about 25% of what it used to do. There is a cost on large capital items so severely underutilized. I bet fixed costs to run it almost regardless of throughput are way over 50% of all costs.

Lessons learned are always helpful to improve, painful as it may be to review and reflect.

I saw an example of this years ago when a major oil discovery was made and a classic example of how not to delineate, develop and produce was made. Caused ultimate recoveries to be maybe half of what they otherwise had been. Those who made mistakes refused to indict themselves, but found fallguys to take the hit.

Likely cost the company $2-4 billion.