Pipelines, Cabbage, and Muskoxen

We’ve all heard about the pipeline, but here’s some info of which you may be unaware.

The Alyeska Pipeline Service Company is a consortium made up of oil companies (BP, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Unocal, and Koch Alaska). The pipeline is one of the World’s longest pipelines at 800 miles. It stretches from Prudhoe Bay (300+ miles North of the Artic Circle) to Valdez, the Northern most ice-free port in North America.

Oil was discovered on Alaska’s North Slope in 1968. The pipeline company was formed in 1970, construction began March of 1975, and completed in June of 1977. At that time the project was the largest privately financed construction project ever attempted, completing at 8 billion dollars (10 times the original estimate). Oil began flowing on June 20, 1977 and the first tanker load of crude left Valdez on August 1, 1977.
The pipe is 48 inches in diameter, 380 miles of the pipeline is buried to the level of bedrock. Unstable permafrost makes it necessary for the remainder of the pipe to be above ground on insulating towers. The above ground portion zigzags allowing for expansion and contraction caused by seasonal temperature changes ranging from -80 to +80 degrees Fahrenheit. The pipe can slide up to 12 feet on the tower as the temperature changes.

There are 11 pump stations. Slightly over 1 million barrels of oil flow down the pipeline each day with the record year being 1988 when it carried 2.1 million barrels per day. Oil flows at approximately 4 mph.

The crude oil is naturally hot when it comes out of the ground (to 180 degrees F) and cools to about 100 degrees F by the time it reaches Valdez. The support towers are insulated from the pipe so that the heat from the oil doesn’t melt the permafrost (permanently frozen ground) and cause the towers to sink or lean. Those finned items on the top of the towers are to radiate heat from the towers into the air, to further protect from melting the permafrost.

Cabbage grows big up here, 60 to 80 pounds is not uncommon. It is rumored (I haven’t seen them) that at the Alaskan State Fair a single cabbage can fill the bed of a pickup. When I asked a local how he got such big cabbages in his refrigerator he said “shredded”.

This is a Muskox and calf. These animals don’t smell musky and are related to sheep, not oxen. But they can get big, bulls to 800 pounds, and other than man their only natural enemies are wolves and bears. They once ranged throughout the cold lands of the Northern hemisphere, but became nearly extinct at the end of the last ice age. There were none in Alaska until they were reintroduced in 1979, now there are more than 3,000 roaming Northern Alaska. By the way, their inner layer of wool sells for $25 an ounce and is one of the best insulating natural fibers in existence.