Radio Officer David Ring at Alyeska Petroleum terminal gate, Valdez, Alaska. Valdez Marine Terminal (VMT) October 5, 1980.

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

Radio Officer David Ring at Alyeska Petroleum terminal gate, Valdez, Alaska.

Valdez Marine Terminal (VMT) October 5, 1980.

The Valdez Marine Terminal (VMT) marks the southern terminus of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). Situated on 1,000 acres on the southern shore of ice-free Port Valdez, this is where tankers have loaded Alaska North Slope Crude cargo for four decades, since TAPS startup in 1977. Alyeska employees and contractors work all over the VMT– in offices and warehouses and fabrication shops, on docks and loading berths and heavy equipment, and in sophisticated process areas such Ballast Water Treatment and a power plant.

The facility was designed to load tankers and provide temporary storage capacity to increase reliability and allow North Slope production to operate without impact from marine transport system delays. It cost approximately $1.4 billion to construct and stretches in elevation from sea level to 660 feet up the forested and often snowy Valdez mountainside. The facility has its own emergency and fire response team, and through the Power Vapor Facility, creates its own power. The VMT today operates two loading berths, with 13 storage tanks in service and a working inventory capacity of 6.6 million barrels of crude oil.

The VMT is home to 18 crude oil storage tanks, 13 of which are in service. Each tank has a capacity of 510,000 barrels, features a conical fixed roof, and is supported by 61 interior columns. The storage tanks are paired within containment dikes that hold 110 percent of the volume of both tanks, which accounts for water and snow accumulation. The tanks provide temporary storage capacity for incoming crude oil and hydrocarbon vapors that off-gas from inventory are carefully managed by the Power Vapor Facility.