Oil

How to get all the oil from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay to the lower 48 was the main question raised during the summer of 1968. Before that time oil was being found all throughout northern Alaska. A large 10 billion barrel deposit was discovered at Prudhoe Bay and at this time many plans and ideas where being made to transport the oil to the lower states. Many ideas were presented while many were dropped because of potential harm to the environment, wild life, and oceans. After much thought a pipeline was the only solution to the transportation problem. Pipelines were very common in the main part of the country for moving oil to the refineries. But constructing a similar construction in the area would present many problem. First of all a 800 mile construction would have to be built spanning Prudhoe Bay south to the port of Valdez. Not only was this the longest line ever attempted but in doing so it would be over tundra, mountains, and other challenging obstacles. After much challenge and careful planning while dealing with temperature, native land, environment, etc. On February 10, 1969 it was announced that a 48-inch wide, 800-mile pipeline would be constructed. Building would begin that next spring and ended approximately seven years later. This all came to a cost of 8 billion dollars. Later the pipeline was named one of the most challenging and complicating constructions undertaken in history. Today there are 1.5 million barrels of oil flowing through the 800 mile pipe thus resulting in 2.5 billion in revenues each year.

Map by: The Alaska Almanac 19th Edition

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