Alyeska names former PHMSA administrator as new president

Nov. 17, 2010
Thomas J. Barrett, deputy federal coordinator for Alaska natural gas transportation projects, will on Jan. 1, 2011, become president of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the company that operates the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS).

Nick Snow
OGJ Washington Editor

WASHINGTON, DC, Nov. 17 -- Thomas J. Barrett, deputy federal coordinator for Alaska natural gas transportation projects, will on Jan. 1, 2011, become president of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the company that operates the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS).

Barrett, who is a retired US Coast Guard vice-admiral, led the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), the US Department of Transportation agency which regulates interstate oil and gas pipeline safety, from May 31, 2006, to Aug. 8, 2007. He then became Deputy US Transportation Secretary and held that post until becoming deputy federal coordinator for Alaska gas transportation projects in May 2009.

Barrett will be the first Alyeska president hired as an employee since the company’s founding in 1970, Alyeska said in its announcement. He will succeed Kevin Hostler, who was senior vice-president for BP PLC’s global human resources division when he became Alyeska’s president in 2005.

Hostler, who retired on Sept. 30, was the ninth Alyeska president to serve on loan from one of the pipeline’s member companies. BP Pipelines (Alaska) Inc., ConocoPhillips Transportation Alaska Inc., ExxonMobil Pipeline Co., Unocal Pipeline Co. Inc., and Koch Alaska Pipeline Co. LLC are TAPS’s current owners.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].