Cinch Knot Read online

  CINCH KNOT

  A mystery thriller of Pigs,

  Politics, and Petroleum.

  The multinational plot to nuke the Trans Alaska Pipeline.

  Ron Walden

  PO Box 221974 Anchorage, Alaska 99522-1974

  [email protected]

  www.publicationconsultants.com

  ISBN 1-888125-04-7

  eBook ISBN 978-1-59433-532-7

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 96-67380

  Copyright 1996 by Ron Walden

  —First Edition—

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in any form, or by any mechanical or electronic means including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, in whole or in part in any form, and in any case not without the written permission of the author and publisher.

  Manufactured in the United States of America.

  Cinch Knot is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and unintentional. Except for the obvious inclusion of such broad categories of geography of Alaska, the Trans Alaska Pipeline and its environs, and other cities worldwide, the places are products of the author’s imagination. Historical events surrounding the operation of the pipeline provide the backdrop for the story; but none of the story in this book should be construed as being a factual part of those events.

  Cinch Knot is dedicated to the men and women who conceived, designed, engineered, constructed, and operate the Trans Alaska Pipeline. They represent every American, who have, and continue to give of themselves to ensure our country maintains a position of strength in protecting the worldwide environment and freedom of people everywhere, while still providing the highest standard of living history has recorded.

  In the course of writing this book I received a great deal of help and advice from many people. I have tried to provide accurate technical information within the story. In accumulating this information, I called on so many individuals it would be impossible to acknowledge all, but every one of you has my thanks.

  The personnel of the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company were wonderful in providing information. My thanks to the people of the APSC Public Information Office for their assistance, and for the written and video material they provided.

  I also thank the Public Affairs Office at Elmendorf Air Force Base for arranging interviews with Captain Brad Davis, an F-15 pilot. He helped correct some errors in the book and provided tactical advice. I also extend my thanks Captain Troy Jackson of the Radar Section. He provided a great deal of information that added realism to the text.

  I owe a debt of gratitude to the many security officers with whom I worked during my tenure on the pipeline. Many of the experiences quoted in this work are composites of stories told to me by those men and women. These people are still out there doing their jobs. They are professionals, providing a service in an environment too inhospitable for most of Mother Nature’s creatures. Each of you have my sincere gratitude and admiration.

  Introduction

  Oil was discovered in the Prudhoe Bay oil field by exploratory drilling in 1968. The final permits to build the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline were issued November 16, 1973 with the signing of the Trans Alaska Pipeline Construction Act by then, Secretary of the Interior, Rogers Morton. It took 5 years, 2 months, and 19 days to obtain the permits necessary to build the pipeline. Road construction to Prudhoe Bay was completed in the fall of 1974. On June 20, 1977, the first oil left Pump Station One to travel the 800 miles to Valdez. The pipeline was built at a cost of eight billion dollars.

  The Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline, one of the all-time engineering and construction wonders of the world, stretches from the north coast of Alaska to the ice free port of Valdez on the Gulf of Alaska. A giant steel soda straw through which 20% of the United States domestic oil production flows. Thick black blood of modern civilization flows from the hundreds of wells drilled on the north arctic slope of Alaska.

  The drilling area is divided into several lease tracts. During the early development of the field, it was shared by many oil and exploration companies. Today only a handful of companies are represented. The lions share of activity is conducted by British Petroleum Alaska Division (BP), Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), and Conoco. BP operates the west half of the Prudhoe Bay Field and the Endicott Field. ARCO operates the east half of the Prudhoe Bay Field, as well as the Lisburne and Kaparuk fields. Conoco is the sole operator in the Milne Point Field.

  Crude oil produced by each well is transmitted through small pipe-lines into larger pipelines. This oil, flows through the small pipelines, across the tundra to metering valves where it is measured and tested for quality. It is at this point (Pump Station #1), it enters the Trans Alaska Pipeline and becomes the ward of the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

  Three major mountain ranges are crossed by the pipeline. The Brooks Range is the highest point where the pipeline crosses Atigun Pass with an altitude of 4,739 feet. It crosses the Alaska range at Isabel Pass, 3,420 feet, and the Chugach range at Thompson Pass, 2,812 feet. There are 34 major stream crossings and 800 small crossings. The pipe is above ground for a total of 420 miles and buried for 376 miles. The remaining 3 miles of pipeline are special animal crossings and areas where the pipe corridor is refrigerated under some highways to prevent damage to permafrost.

  The pipe has an outside diameter of 48 inches. Wall thickness of the pipe varies with the pressures required inside. Low pressure areas (466 miles), have a wall thickness of .462 inches. High pressure areas (334 miles), have a wall thickness of .562 inches. The pipeline has a maximum operating pressure of 1,180 pounds per square inch.

  At the height of construction, there were over 20,000 dedicated men and women working on the pipeline. Every day saw innovations in construction—building snow roads for construction pads and an aerial tram to lift 10 ton sections of pipe into position on mountain slopes so steep they had only been traversed by mountain climbers.

  There are 12 pump stations on the pipeline. Two on these pump stations (Pump Stations Five and Eleven) are flow through stations only and do not actually pump any oil. Each pump station has two working pumps and one on standby. The pumps are powered by giant Rolls Royce turbine engines similar to the ones found on jumbo jet airliners. These pump engines also generate electrical power needed to run the pump station and its facilities.

  Crude oil is pumped into the pipe at a pressure of over 800 pounds per square inch. Viscous properties of the thick crude make it necessary to inject the oil with an additive to reduce friction and the tumbling action of the crude inside the pipe. This friction heats the crude naturally to a temperature of between 70 and 80 degrees, cooled somewhat from the 120 degrees it had at the well head.

  So begins an odyssey taking the thick, black fluid from the frozen north coast across tundra, rivers, mountains, and valleys to the Marine Terminal at Valdez. At the Marine Terminal it is stored in huge tanks until the next supertanker arrives. It will then be gravity fed through miles of pipes to the tanker berth where it is accepted aboard the vessel.

  Valdez Marine Terminal is also the Operations Control Center (OCC). Every facet of the operation of the pipeline is electronically monitored and data transmitted by microwave and VHF radio to OCC. This is the nerve center of the pipeline. All automated safety controls, flow functions, emergency controls, and untold numbers of daily functions are tied to the OCC computers.

  The daily throughput varies slightly with production, but averages between 1.9 million barrels and 2.1 million barrels per day. This is a tribute to the education, skill, and dedication of the people working for the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. Their production and safety record cannot be matched by anyone in any industry, anywhere.


  The Alyeska Pipeline Service Company is owned by a Consortium of oil companies, Amerada Hess Pipeline Corporation, ARCO Pipeline Company, Phillips Alaska Pipeline Corporation, BP Pipelines (Alaska) Inc., Exxon Pipeline Company, Unocal Pipeline Company, and Mobil Alaska Pipeline Company. The State of Alaska has been able to run its government, successfully, for many years on the revenues generated by taxes levied on the flow of oil through the Trans Alaska Pipeline.

  Living in Alaska means living in a society, whose culture is based on the price of a barrel of oil. However, producers in Alaska do not dictate the market price of a barrel of oil. Many factors contribute to the value of crude oil, the largest of which is, of course, the OPEC council. Since they are the major producers and largest reserve holders, they have the power to dictate the price of oil worldwide. Their track record for reaching agreement on price and production quotas has been less than exemplary.

  Unstable governments in the mid-east, roller-coaster oil prices, varying production quotas, loss of government tax incentives, oil depletion taxes, and a thousand other ills have contributed to making oil dependent societies a feast or famine existence. Declining oil prices are becoming a concern for everyone in America’s northernmost state. The 450,000 residents of the state will somehow have to deal with a billion-dollar shortfall in state revenues. There are rumors, up and down the pipeline, of layoffs and cutbacks …

  The Ultrasonic Pig

  Its function and purpose

  Any steel pipeline is subject to corrosion and the vanadium steel of the Alaska pipeline is no exception. When an unprotected metallic structure comes into contact with the ground, an electrochemical process may take place causing the metal to corrode. To minimize this process, a number of preventive measures were undertaken. The pipe was coated with a fusion bonded epoxy and wrapped with a specially designed polyethylene-based tape.

  A cathodic protection system consisting of zinc ribbon anodes was welded to each side of the pipe at 500 to 1000 foot intervals. When coupled to the buried metal, the anodes are designed to corrode, instead of the pipe.

  Test stations were installed approximately every three miles to measure and evaluate the system’s performance.

  There is usually very little corrosion inside the pipe. Most of the internal corrosion has been detected within the area of pump stations where the oil flows slowly and the water and anaerobic sulfur-reducing bacteria (SRBs) come into contact with the metal. Both water and SRBs are found in Alaska North Slope crude oil.

  Alyeska Pipeline Service Company has run corrosion detection pigs in the pipeline since start-up. However, no corrosion was detected in the pipeline until 1988. It became apparent early in the operation of the pipeline that a better detection method must be found. In 1984, Alyeska commissioned the development of an advanced magnetic-flux system. This advanced system developed by Pipetronix Corporation (formerly IPEL of Canada) began to detect anomalies in 1988. These anomalies, or areas that had other than normal measurements, were found to have 40% metal loss. It was decided that further development in corrosion detection must be accomplished.

  In 1988, with introduction of the ultrasonic pig, anomalies with a metal loss of 10% were detected. The ultrasonic pig was developed by the NKK company of Japan. The 6,600-pound pig is 10 feet long and constructed of titanium. It has amazing capabilities that only recent developments in micro-processing have allowed it to achieve. It has an onboard computer that stores and processes a tremendous amount of information. It travels down the pipeline at a rate of about 10 feet per second. Its instrumentation divides the interior of the pipe into 15mm by 15mm grids. There are 255 of these grids in the circumference of the pipe. That means that there are 255 transducers transmitting a signal every 15mm the full length of the pipe. The onboard computer receives the information and determines if there is indication of thinning of the pipe wall. If an anomaly is detected, the location of the irregularity is recorded on a commercial grade video recorder.

  The pig is removed from the pipe at Pump Station Four and Pump Station Ten to replace the video tape and to charge the batteries operating the equipment.

  Each time an inspection run is scheduled for the ultrasonic pig, it must be brought from Japan. At U.S. Customs in Anchorage, the pig is dismantled and inspected for contraband. This process of dismantling and reassembling the pig takes one month. The pig is then placed in its own container and shipped to the warehouse at Pump Station One for final installation of recorders and fresh batteries. All work on the pig is done by electronic technicians employed by NKK.

  The information taken from the pig run is translated and evaluated by NKK in Japan and the results, in the form of computer printouts and graphs, are then sent to the Alyeska’s, Bragaw Street offices in Anchorage for comparison to information from other pig runs.

  It is a long and complicated process, but the oil companies guaranteed the pipeline to last for 30 years. This vigilant effort has discovered over 1,800 anomalies to date and precipitated the exhumation and repair of many miles of pipeline.

  CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eightteen

  Chapter Ninteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  CHAPTER ONE

  Dan Webster tried to open his eyes but they wouldn’t cooperate. The unmistakable hospital odor told him where he was. Breathing, even shallow panting, was agonizing, hot, white pain, and into that pain images flashed: he remembered his moment of hesitation as his eyes narrowed on the front sight and his target; he could see his attacker’s jaw tighten, the pistol muzzle flashing twice—but he recalled hearing no sound. “Is somebody there? Help me!” Pain again…and…flashes: air rushing from his lungs as he fell backward; squashed bugs stuck to the Blazer’s bumper; and yellow dandelions in the green grass—then nothing. Somebody help me!” Were his words only in his head and not coming from his mouth? How did he get to the hospital he wondered. No one came. Pain and medication pulled the blackness around him and he drifted into darkness again.

  The Mountain House Cafe was a regular stop on Dan’s patrol. Elizabeth Lucile Johnson was a waitress there. Even in her apron, with her hands full of coffee cups, she looked like a cheerleader: more cute than pretty, smooth skinned, slim, agile, and congenial. Beth finished her third year at college, majoring in accounting, and took up waitressing to get her through school. She found herself watching expectedly for the young deputy.

  “Hi Dan. Busy night?” she asked, as she wiped the table and sat the coffee in front of him.

  “It’s pretty quiet tonight. I’ve had one burglary. It was Ernie. He’d parked his pickup in the wrong driveway and walked onto the back porch of his neighbor’s house. Scared the neighbor lady out of her wits. I found him asleep in a pile of laundry. He thought he was home and complained that his wife wouldn’t let him in the house.” Dan grinned. “I took him home. Another case solved and goodness triumphs again.” He rattled his knife and fork together.

  Beth laughed with him and then looked at him seriously. “Do me a big favor, huh?”

  “Sure.”

  “My brother borrowed my car last night and was supposed to bring it back before midnight. He called, said he’d been drinking and was spending the night at his girlfriend’s.” She looked at her watch.

  “I get off at 6:30. Take me home, would you?”

  Dan had been trying to work up the courage to as
k for a date, and now the opportunity dropped into his lap.

  “I have a briefing after my shift that’ll last until about 6:30. I can get here around 6:45; if it’s not too late. I’d be happy to take you home, I mean to yours, of course.” Both smiled.

  “That’ll be just fine; about 6:45 then?”

  There was a note from Sheriff McNabb on his desk when he returned to the station. Dan was to report to him at 1600 hours. Usually when a deputy got this kind of note from the sheriff, with no other information, it meant wear your cast iron shorts.

  “I wonder which citizen thinks I was abusive?” Knots began to twist in his gut. “I suppose I’ll find out this afternoon. I get to pick up Beth in a few minutes; life isn’t all bad.”

  He saw Beth waiting in front of the truck stop; her hair reflected red highlights in the morning sun. “How can anyone look this good after working a 10-hour shift in a restaurant?” he thought.

  “Dan, over here. Thanks for the rescue. I didn’t know who else to ask. Certainly not some of the bums and deadbeats that come in here”

  They had attended the same school. Dan, a couple years older had an impressive record in football and associated mostly with the school jocks. Beth had been a good student, loved math, was popular with the girls, but seldom dated. After high school, Dan joined the army, Beth spent winters at college in Sacramento and summers back home.

  The trip to Beth’s apartment was full of chitchat about each other. Dan’s father had been killed in a logging accident while Dan was still in high school. Since his mother’s death, shortly after his return from the army, Dan had been a solitary person, never had a girl friend, and spent most of his free time fishing for steelhead in the Trinity River. Just over 6 feet tall and muscular, he weighed about 175 pounds. Dan figured he’d be a cop forever.