Pipeline Facts

Pipeline Facts

They began building the pipeline in 1974 and finished building it in 1977.
In twenty years more than eleven billion barrels of oil have gone through the pipeline.
The Alyeska Pipeline Service Company operates the pipeline. This company is made up of seven oil companies. They are: BP, ARCO, Exxon, Mobil, Amerada Hess, Phillips, and Unocal.
88,000 barrels of oil go through the pipeline in one hour.
There are 42 gallons of oil in one barrel.
The oil in the pipeline takes 4 and a half days to travel the 800 miles.
When the whole pipeline is full of oil it holds 9.04 million barrels of oil.
There are people in little buildings along the pipeline that help to make sure that the oil continues to flow and that work to prevent spills from happening. There are 10 of these pumpstations along the 800 miles of the pipeline.
It cost 8 billion dollars to build the pipeline.
Every year it costs 210 millions dollars to run the pipeline.
Back in the 1800's oil was stored in barrels. They put the barrels in a wagon to take it from one place to another.

Photo from The Great Alaska Pipeline

This is a picture of an early pig. A pig is a device that is put into the pipeline to clean wax off the inside. It also can tell if the pipe is getting rusty. They are launched at a station and then taken out at another.

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