The Alaskan Oil Pipeline
The Alaskan Oil Pipeline
Nineteen sixty-eight confirmed the year
Of discovery by ‘Humble Oil’
To North America’s largest oil field,
On the North Slope of the Brooks Range;
A west to east Northern Alaskan mountain chain.
An area forty miles wide by fifteen miles deep
(Although flat as a skating rink)
Following the coast of the Beaufort Sea.
Located two hundred and fifty miles up the globe,
From the Arctic Circle,
And twelve hundred miles South,
Below the North Pole,
Between ‘The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska,’
And ‘The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge;’
In an area called ‘Prudhoe Bay,’ Alaska.
The region was named by Sir John Franklin;
(A British officer and explorer in the Royal Navy)
In honor of his classmate Admiral Algernon Percy
(The 4th Duke of Northumberland).
To put it in perspective, the Prudhoe Bay oil field
Doubles the size of the next largest oil field
In the U.S.A., which lays in Texas.
An interesting feature is that the oil rises to the wellhead
Under its geological pressure, therefore, no pumping is required.
The oil field produces a million barrels of crude oil
Or forty-two million gallons, U.S. per day.
For years, the oil companies and the protectionists
Had been embroiled over disputes regarding
The environment, law enforcement, and native concerns.
With the creation of Earth Day in 1970,
Twenty million demonstrators staged organized protests
Across the land, and their voices rang,
But this would soon change.
Oil embargo! 1973:
By the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
Against the United States of America
For supporting the Israelis against the Arabs,
During the Yom Kippur War,
This created world shortages and skyrocketing oil prices.
The ‘First Shock’ oil crisis and the U.S.A. vowed,
Never to be ‘held hostage’ to oil dependency and blackmail again.
(The ‘Second Shock’ oil crisis occurred in 1979).
Both Houses of the U.S. government passed legislation;
Enacting ‘The Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act of 1973’
That was signed into Law by President Nixon;
To build ‘The Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System,’
From Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez.
This essentially halted all legal challenges against its construction.
However, as a result of the opposition to the project,
Environmental concerns and regulatory laws were enacted,
Following the executive order by Nixon in nineteen-seventy,
That established the ‘Environmental Protection Agency.’
The boom was underway, workers flocked to Alaska,
To secure high-paying jobs and spin off opportunity benefits,
As in the old days of the gold rushes.
The route would traverse the heartland of Alaska
With steel pipe made in Japan
Consisting of over 100,000 pieces in all,
(Each piece forty to sixty feet in length
And half an inch thick and four feet in diameter)
Weighing a total of 550,000 tons,
Zigzagging its way south for eight hundred miles
(To compensate for expansions, contractions, and earthquakes)
From Prudhoe Bay to the ice-free port of Valdez,
On the Pacific coast in Prince William Sound.
Three years later, after a staggering
Eight billion dollar cost and thirty-two fatalities;
The ‘Alyeska Pipeline Service Company’
Completed the Mega project (on time).
“June 20, 1977: ‘Oil In Day’”
Headlined in the Alaskan newspapers,
As hot, crude oil flowed from Prudhoe Bay,
Via the pipeline,
Into the Valdez Marine Terminal storage tanks,
To be pumped into Supertankers and shipped
To the lower forty-eight States.
Located in Anchorage, Alaska,
Is the Operations Control Center
Which can initiate an emergency shutdown,
And stop the flow of oil in the event of a rupture
By isolating the pipeline in fifteen minutes;
Through the use of seventy-one gate valves,
Incorporated into the pipeline system to open or close
To block the flow of oil in either direction,
Thereby preventing an environmental catastrophe.
Half of the line lies on supports above the ground;
Designed with heat sinks to dissipate the heat in the soil.
This is done to maintain colder temperatures
Between the air and pipe during the winter to prevent thawing;
Which would create unstable conditions
Due to the melting of the ice in the Permafrost
(A thick layer of soil that remains frozen all year round).
And preservation of wildlife migration routes
(Namely, the caribou who can then pass under it).
The other four hundred miles lie underground in a padded sand buffer
To prevent damage to the pipe by rock and other materials.
Designed in conjunction with the pipeline system are:
Grounding rods and sacrificial zinc ribbons
Strategically placed to reduce the risk of corrosion.
Where the line crosses the three strike-slip faults
(aka wrench faults, rocks that move horizontally)
The pipe rides on teflon shoes that slide on beams
In the event of an earthquake.
Devices known as cleaning pigs are discharged into the line,
To sweep pipe build-ups that precipitate out of the oil stream,
And could disrupt the flow.
Over three mountain ranges
And eight-hundred river and stream crossings;
Eleven booster stations pump to keep the oil flowing,
In the pipeline that coils like a metal snake,
Through the environment
To the oil port at Prince William Sound
(Named after the Spanish naval captain,
Antonia Valdez in 1790).
Ever since, the ‘Exxon Valdez’
Supertanker oil spill disaster of 1989;
The ‘Oil Pollution Act of 1990’ mandates
All Alaskan-class oil tankers,
VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier Class)
Be built double hulled.
These Supertankers are built in San Diego, USA:
(941.6 feet long, 164 feet wide, with a draft of 61.7 feet
i.e.; two and a half football fields long, one wide and one-half deep)
Carrying approximately one and a half million barrels of oil by sea,
To the lower mainland and off-shore destinies.
***
Copyright ©
Dennis Spilchuk
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