(Published: January 1, 2004)

With security around the Valdez oil terminal already beefed up, the U.S. Coast Guard abruptly shut down all oil-loading operations Tuesday night, ordered three tankers to leave the area, and kept the facility closed all day Wednesday.

A Coast Guard spokesman would only say that the order was part of a "further extension of prudent maritime security measures."

Air Force fighter jets, meanwhile, have been flying patrols around Valdez in recent days, and federal authorities have placed restrictions on private planes in a 25-mile radius around the town, home to the sprawling marine terminal at the end of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

One tanker, the Marine Columbia, was in port and preparing to take on crude oil Tuesday night when the Coast Guard ordered loading suspended, said Anil Mathur, chief executive of Alaska Tanker Co. in Beaverton, Ore., which operates tankers for BP.

Coast Guard officers explained their reasons to the tanker company, but Mathur said he couldn't disclose that information.

"I'd love to but I can't," he said. "It's really inappropriate for me to talk about that. We're doing whatever we can to cooperate with the Coast Guard."

Two other tankers waiting to come into port -- another Alaska Tanker Co. ship, the Kenai, and the Polar Alaska, operated by a Conoco Phillips subsidiary -- were also ordered out of the area by the Coast Guard. Both had been anchored off Knowles Head in Prince William Sound when they received the order.

Mathur wouldn't say where his company's two tankers were sent, and a spokeswoman for Conoco Phillips directed all questions to the Coast Guard.

John Devens, a former Valdez mayor and executive director of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council, said he got a 15-minute briefing Wednesday morning from Coast Guard Cmdr. Mark Swanson, captain of the port for Prince William Sound.

Swanson said "he was not at liberty to tell me the source, but there was concern a tanker could be a target," Devens said.

"I certainly assumed there must have been something specific about tankers," he said. "I don't know of any other time that they have moved all the tankers out of Prince William Sound."

Valdez Mayor Bert Cottle said local Coast Guard officials told him they expected the terminal to reopen some time today. Only the tanker terminal is closed; the port of Valdez remains open, Cottle said.

On average, just over a tanker a day takes on oil at the Valdez dock, fed by the 800-mile pipeline from the North Slope oil fields. It's not unusual for tanker loading to be suspended at the dock because of poor weather.

"We've had weather closures on and off for the last several weeks," said Mike Heatwole, spokesman for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., which operates the pipeline and terminal.

Heatwole said he believed the last time tanker loading was suspended for reasons besides weather was in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. He said the shutdown had not yet caused a slowdown in North Slope oil production.

That's because 18 big storage tanks at the Valdez port can hold a combined 9.2 million barrels of oil. Daily production from the North Slope averages 1 million barrels per day.

Heatwole would not say how many days the shutdown could last before North Slope production would have to be scaled back or stopped.

"We're OK right now," he said Wednesday afternoon.

The state's Division of Homeland Security had not been officially notified of the Coast Guard decision by midday Wednesday, division director Tom Burgess said.

But Burgess said he was not aware of any new intelligence that indicated terrorists intended to target oil tankers. Rather, he said, the decision probably stemmed from last week's announcement that an attack New Year's Eve or New Year's Day is possible, based on intercepted cell phone calls, e-mails and other messages picked up via "listening stations" throughout the world.

"That amount of apparent discussion about attacking the U.S. is higher than it has been since Sept. 11," Burgess said.

After the federal government issued warnings last week that more terrorist attacks were possible over the holidays, a flow of military, FBI and law enforcement personnel arrived in Valdez. Armed sentries are stopping every car and truck on Dayville Road -- the access to the pipeline terminal -- and allowing entry only to those with business on the road.

Residents report marked and unmarked cars cruising through town, the regular hum of helicopters in the air and the occasional fighter jet streaking overhead.

Air taxi pilot Chuck LaPage, a former Valdez city councilman, experienced his own close call with national security on Tuesday.

A fighter jet on patrol from Elmendorf Air Force Base swooped down for a closer look at the 70-year-old LaPage and his Cessna 180 as he ferried three Russian Orthodox passengers from a neighboring village into Valdez for some Christmas shopping.

LaPage, on his final approach to the Valdez airport, didn't realize the F-15C was there until he got a radio call from an observer on the ground -- Steve Searles, the airport manager.

"He got on the radio and told me that I had a fighter coming, making a low pass right over me ... about 1,000 feet," LaPage said Wednesday. "I never did see him but one of my passengers heard the transmission and was looking through the skylight trying to see if they could see him."

Once on the ground, a handful of government types -- military, local police, Coast Guard -- greeted the plane, LaPage said.

"We spent some time discussing it because I was a little concerned," LaPage said. "I'm just glad that nothing unhandy happened out there."

The Federal Aviation Administration issued new airspace restrictions last week when the national terror alert was elevated to orange, according to agency spokeswoman Joette Storm. The agency reinstated a no-fly zone within a one-mile radius of the marine terminal, below 10,000 feet. The FAA is also requiring any pilot entering a 25-mile radius around the airport to radio Juneau controllers.

Elmendorf pilots have stepped up patrols since the national alert rose last week, said Maj. Brenda Campbell, spokeswoman for Alaskan Command.

On Tuesday, an Air Force pilot who happened to be monitoring the area detected the Cessna within the 25-mile zone, Campbell said. The pilot apparently thought LaPage had not filed the requisite flight plan so he bore down for a closer look, Campbell said, but then learned that LaPage had indeed filed his plan.

"So we just peeled off and continued our business," she said.

Despite the heavy military and FBI presence, several residents said, people in Valdez didn't appear very worried about a holiday attack on a small snowy town, which was pounded by heavy winds Wednesday.

The Elks club was putting on a New Year's Eve bash. City clerk Sheri Pierce was planning a quiet night at home, playing cards. Devens invited some people up to his bed and breakfast.

"I guess everybody hopes that it's overkill," he said. "The worst thing we could do is ignore something like that and say they're not going to attack here and then something does happen. I'm glad they're taking it very seriously."

Reporter Doug O'Harra contributed to this story.

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