FAIRBANKS — The reconfiguration of the trans-Alaska pipeline is still a few years away from completion, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. manager John Baldridge said Saturday.

Alyeska has been replacing its manned pumps with automated ones at its four pump stations. The final piece, Pump Station 1, will be updated in two to three years, Baldridge said.

The switch is in response to declining oil production on the North Slope. The automated pumps can propel smaller amounts of oil, produce more data and be controlled and monitored from Anchorage.

Baldridge estimated the pipeline will be transporting 700,000 barrels per day by the end of 2009 and expects to see a 5 to 6 percent annual drop if major oil fields aren’t discovered.

Pump Station 1 is where five pipelines from the North Slope producers meet, and their oil must be processed at the station before being mixed and sent southward to Valdez.

Since the pump is basically the only thing being changed, the process won’t take longer than at the other three stations, Baldridge said.

The automated pumps will replace 64 on-site workers and retain 90 maintenance technicians. The system was installed at Pump Station 9 in Delta Junction in February 2007.

Pump Station 4 was updated in late 2007, Pump Station 3 switched earlier this year and Pump Station 1 is in the engineering phase. All three are north of the Brooks Range and must push oil over Atigun Pass, the highest point of elevation on the pipeline’s 800-mile route.

The plan, sanctioned in 2005, was made to cut operation costs of the pipeline. Its goal is for the pipeline to function as safe as before with the least people possible.

The decision to cut employees was an extremely tough one, Baldridge said.

“It’s never easy when there’s jobs involved,” he said after speaking with about 25 people at the Fairbanks Republican Women’s Club on Saturday morning.

The project was initially estimated to cost $250 million but will put Alyeska back more than $400 million when completed, Baldridge estimated.

At its peak in 1989, 2.1 million barrels per day flowed through the pipeline, propelled by 28 pumps at 10 stations.

The new system can only move 1 million barrels per day but is able to transport smaller amounts. It’s known that as few as 200,000 barrels per day can travel through the pipeline, but Baldridge said it can possibly handle around 100,000.

“All the technical problems can be solved, but economics — you need more oil for that to be a little better,” he said.

Alyeska is owned by a consortium of oil companies — roughly 47 percent by BP; 28 percent by ConocoPhillips; 20 percent by Exxon Mobil; 3 percent by Koch Alaska Pipeline Company LLC; and 1 percent by Unocal Pipeline Company, owned by Chevron.

The pipeline operator is not legally a part of the oil companies, but owned by their subsidiaries. That is a measure to ensure Alyeska can accurately count how much oil is coming from each of the 10 North Slope producers, who each pay different rates to use the pipeline.

Today, Alyeska is not making a profit and operates on a yearly budget that it submits to its owners. Operating and maintaining the pipeline costs about $500 million per year, not including taxes or reconfiguration costs.

The company will be hiring to fill existing positions, Baldridge told the Republican Women’s Club. He expects that as workers from 1977, its first operating year, soon reach retirement age, Alyeska will have an increase in open positions.

Alyeska employs about 1,600 people. Roughly half work directly for the company and half are contractors. Baldridge could not estimate how many of them are Fairbanks or Interior residents.