Hermiller Retires From Alyeska Pipeline

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the oil company consortium that operates the trans-Alaska pipeline, will replace James Hermiller, president and chief executive, in April.

David Pritchard, BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc.’s senior vice president in charge of Prudhoe Bay operations, will replace Hermiller, a 57-year-old former British Petroleum executive who elected to take early retirement after 27 years in the industry.

Hermiller presided during a stormy period at Alyeska. He was installed soon after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and pledged to patch up tattered relations with Prince William Sound residents.

But new fights flared over air and water pollution, corrosion along the 800-mile line and a 1990 covert investigation of the company’s environmental critics. The spy operation, conducted at Alyeska’s behest by Florida-based Wackenhut Corp., prompted a congressional recommendation that Alyeska be charged criminally for violating the privacy of environmentalists and company whistle-blowers.