Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Alaska: Volcanic activity affects oil terminal
Chevron Corp.’s Drift River oil terminal in Alaska has been shut down following extensive flooding in the area from a volcano eruption earlier this week, a state government agency said.
The terminal supplies Tesoro Corp.’s Kenai refinery, Mickey Driver, a spokesman for Chevron, said in a telephone interview. The terminal handles 8,200 barrels of crude oil a day from Exxon Mobil Corp., Pacific Energy Resources and Chevron, said Driver.
Chevron has not shut in production from the Cook Inlet and can store between seven and 10 days of output near platforms, according to Driver.
No spill has yet to be found, from tanks holding 145,000 barrels of Cook Inlet crude oil on site, according to the report from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
The terminal and related pipeline were shut early March 23 following the eruption of Mount Redoubt. The terminal can hold at least 1 million barrels.
The Cook Inlet pipeline to the terminal has a capacity of 225,000 barrels of crude a day, and mainly serves the local refinery market, according to Chevron’s Web site.
The Tesoro refinery can process 72,000 barrels of crude oil a day, according to the company’s Web site.
