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Over three decades, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. has operated the trans-Alaska oil
pipeline with the assistance of numerous technologies. None, perhaps, is better known
than a clever innovation cooked up in the chemical laboratories of Atlantic Richfield
Co. called drag reducing agent, or DRA.

A long-chained hydrocarbon polymer, DRA has the consistency of a gooey, clinging

gel resembling rubber cement. Technically, DRA is a poly-alpha-olefin, or non-
saturated carbon with very large, long-chain molecules composed of hydrogen and
carbon atoms.

It proved to be a particularly important development for the pipeline, which was built
to handle 1.5 million barrels per day of crude, according Jim Weeks, a senior ARCO
manager in Alaska in the 1980s.

In the late 1980s when oil flow through the pipeline climbed to a rate of more than 2
million bpd, Weeks said injections of DRA made the higher throughput possible
without additional construction.

³It gave TAPS a 30 percent increase in capacity without adding pipes or pumps or
anything else,´ Weeks said in a recent interview.

But the story of Alyeska¶s love affair with DRA dates back to 1979, two years after
startup.

DRA was first injected into the pipeline on July 1, 1979.

The pipeline was initially designed to move 2 million bpd of oil, using 12 pump
stations. Each pump station could accommodate four mainline pumps, with three
operating and one spare. Each of the pumps was to be driven by a 14,500-horsepower
gas turbine.
The pump stations were designed to be built in phases. Phase 1 included building
pump stations 1, 3, 4, 8 and 10, with two pumps each, which allowed for pumping
600,000 bpd of crude.

Phase 2 added pump stations 6, 9 and 12, with three pumps each and installed a 3rd
pump at pump stations 1, 3, 4, 8 and 10, as throughput climbed to 1.2 million bpd.

Phase 3 was intended to add a fourth pump at pump stations 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 12,
and to bring on line pump stations 2, 5, 7 and 11, with four pumps each to
accommodate a boost in oil flow to 2 million bpd.

Before Phase 3 could be implemented, testing of DRA proved it to be a viable

alternative to mechanical horsepower in the trans-Alaska oil pipeline system. As a
result, Phase 3 never happened. Instead, pump stations 2 and 7 were built with just
two pumps each, and the company shelved plans for building pump stations 5 and 11.

That fourth (spare) pump was never installed at any of the pump stations, but the
stations¶ gas turbines were modified to produce more power, up to the equivalent of
18,000 horses.

Even without the extra pumps and pump stations originally envisioned, DRA enabled
the pipeline to handle peak oil flow of 2.15 million bpd. Maximum capacity without
DRA was slightly more than 1.4 million bpd, according to Mike Malvick, operations
engineering supervisor.

³DRA use, when injected at strategic locations, allowed 28 pumps to pump 2.1
million bpd of oil and eliminated the need for eight additional operating pumps and
gas turbines,´ he said.

³I¶d say a rough estimate of the cost savings in facility construction from DRA would
be approximately $300 million, in 1977 dollars,´ Malvick said. ³In today¶s dollars,
that would be in excess of $1 billion.´





Despite its efficacy, DRA required a significant learning curve at Alyeska. Engineers
and technicians conducted an ongoing series of tests through the years to assess the
substance¶s range of capabilities.

Malvick said the original gel-like consistency, which had an active ingredient that
required it to be dissolved in kerosene or diesel, was very difficult to use. Handling it
was akin to manipulating an extremely sticky batch of melting mozzarella cheese.
³If you dipped up a handful of DRA, it would come away with a strand still attached
to the batch that would get thinner and thinner but would never break,´ Malvick said.
³If you spilled it, the clean-up tools of choice were a shovel and a long pair of shears.´

This feature made DRA ideal for smoothing away turbulence as crude and natural gas
liquids rushed through the pipe.

One problem with DRA was it would lose its desirable properties once it passed
through a pump station, Weeks said.

Thus, batches of the agent had to be injected in the pipeline at regular intervals to
keep the oil flowing smoothly.

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Malvick says the turbulent flow of crude in the pipeline chews up energy, and DRA
acts like a spring or shock absorber, reducing turbulence and thus, the energy needed
to move the oil to Valdez.

One factor in Alyeska¶s willingness to continue using DRA was its lack of lasting
effects on Alaska North Slope petroleum liquids flowing through the pipeline.

³We¶ve not seen quality degradation in the crude oil,´ Malvick said. ³DRA is also
injected into some pipelines for refined products in the Lower 48 with no detrimental
impact.´

Another key development was the success DRA manufacturers had in converting the
substance into slurry products that can be more easily transported, injected and
cleaned up than the original gel.

³The slurries appeared in the late 1990s, and they¶ve taken the market by storm. So
they don¶t make the gel anymore,´ Malvick said.

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Alyeska used DRA to aid crude throughput in the 1980s and 1990s, but in 1995, the
company drafted the substance into a different service.

³We started using it for horsepower management. We took the same concept and went
in a different direction,´ Malvick said.

As North Slope petroleum production declined, Alyeska found that using DRA was
more economical than running existing pump stations. The discovery led to
shutdowns of Pump Station 8 in 1995, Pump Station 10 in 1996, Pump Station 6 in
1997 and Pump Station 12 in 2003 or 2004, Malvick said.

Today, Alyeska is still using DRA, though now it figures prominently in the
company¶s strategic reconfiguration process, which called for electrifying the
pipeline¶s remaining pump stations. Injection of DRA is allowing Alyeska to shut
down or scale back power usage at pump stations 7 and 9.

³Depending on the cost of electricity, we may choose to inject DRA rather than run
our pumps so hard and save on electricity consumption,´ Malvick said.

The decision, like earlier moves to use DRA, hinges on a simple equation.

³When DRA is cheaper than fuel plus station maintenance plus personnel, then we
shut down the pump station and inject DRA,´ he said.