Edited by Gerald Boerner
Commentary:
In the 19th century, we saw remarkable advances in transportation in this country with the opening of the Erie Canal , the transcontinental stagecoach, and the Oregon Trail. In the 20th century, we saw the development of the automobile and airplane; both of these developments required petroleum to be refined into lubricating oil and gasoline. By the mid 1900s, the easy sources of these petroleum reserves have been tapped. The U.S. became dependent on imported oil and the discovery of new sources became more difficult.
Within this context the discovery of the north-slope petroleum reserve in Prudhoe Bay in Alaska. The problem was getting that crude oil to Valdez for shipment to the lower 48 states. This challenge was solved by the building of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline. This became a modern engineering feat which U.S. industry solved to deliver the needed oil to American consumers and industry.
“The Alaska corporation commonly known as Alyeska Pipeline Company was founded in 1970 to design, construct, operate and maintain a pipeline to transport oil from the fields on the North Slope of Alaska where oil was discovered in 1968 to an ice-free deep-water port in Valdez, AK. The pipeline was built between March 1975 and June 1977, running from the North Slope fields at Prudhoe Bay to the Marine Terminal at Valdez on Prince William Sound. Alyeska then went on to operate and maintain TAPS. The first oil flowed into the pipeline on June 20, 1977 and the first tanker load departed from Valdez on August 1, 1977.” (Wikipedia)
So let’s get on with our exploration of this engineering success story… GLB
These Introductory Comments are copyrighted:
Copyright©2011 — Gerald Boerner — All Rights Reserved[ 4042 Words ]
Quotations Related to PIPELINE:
“I’d like to work with the missus, but there’s nothing in the pipeline at the moment.”
— Guy Ritchie
“Well I’ve got lots more great TV projects in the pipeline.”
— Lisa Snowdon
“One of the attractive things about being in Scotland is that we have a very good pipeline of new people coming into the company from the excellent universities around us.”
— David Milne
