Trans-Alaska Pipeline System

Trans-Alaska Pipeline System
The trans-Alaska oil pipeline, as it zig-zags across the landscape
Location of trans-Alaska pipeline
Location
Country	Alaska, United States
Coordinates	70°15′26″N 148°37′8″W / 70.25722°N 148.61889°W / 70.25722; -148.61889Coordinates: 70°15′26″N 148°37′8″W / 70.25722°N 148.61889°W / 70.25722; -148.61889
General direction	North-South
From	Prudhoe Bay, Alaska
Passes through	Deadhorse Delta Junction Fairbanks Fox Glennallen North Pole
To	Valdez, Alaska
Runs alongside	Dalton Highway Richardson Highway Elliott Highway
General information
Type	Pump stations
Owner	Alyeska Pipeline Service Company
Partners	BP ConocoPhillips Exxon Mobil Koch Industries Chevron Corporation
Commissioned	1977
Technical information
Length	800 mi (1,300 km)
Maximum discharge	2.136 MMbbl/d (339,600 m3/d)
Diameter	48 in (1,219 mm)
No. of pumping stations	12

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) includes the trans-Alaska crude-oil pipeline, 11 pump stations, several hundred miles of feeder pipelines, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. TAPS is one of the world's largest pipeline systems. It is commonly called the Alaska pipeline, trans-Alaska pipeline, or Alyeska pipeline, (or the pipeline as referred to in Alaska), but those terms technically apply only to the 800 miles (1,287 km) of the pipeline with the diameter of 48 inches (122 cm) that conveys oil from Prudhoe Bay, to Valdez, Alaska. The crude oil pipeline is privately owned by the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

The pipeline was built between 1974 and 1977 after the 1973 oil crisis caused a sharp rise in oil prices in the United States. This rise made exploration of the Prudhoe Bay oil field economically feasible. Environmental, legal, and political debates followed the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968, and the pipeline was built only after the oil crisis provoked the passage of legislation designed to remove legal challenges to the project.

In building the pipeline, engineers faced a wide range of difficulties, stemming mainly from the extreme cold and the difficult, isolated terrain. The construction of the pipeline was one of the first large-scale projects to deal with problems caused by permafrost, and special construction techniques had to be developed to cope with the frozen ground. The project attracted tens of thousands of workers to Alaska, causing a boomtown atmosphere in Valdez, Fairbanks, and Anchorage.

The first barrel of oil traveled through the pipeline in 1977, and full-scale production began by the end of the year. Several notable incidents of oil leakage have occurred since, including those caused by sabotage, maintenance failures, and bullet holes. As of 2010, the pipeline had shipped almost 16 billion barrels (2.5×10⁹ m³) of oil.