Often called one of the wonders of the modern world, the Alaskan pipeline is an incredible
feat of engineering running over 800 miles (1,300 km) from Prudhoe Bay in the north of
Alaska to Valdez in the south.
The pipeline pumps crude oil at a rate of between 700,000 barrels of oil a day to as
many as 2 million, taking almost 12 days to travel the length and breadth of Alaska at
a speed of 3.7 miles per hour (6 km/h).
Built across some of the most difficult terrain in the world, the pipeline was at the time
of its construction known as one of the modern wonders of the world, and its construction
was one of the defining feats of modern America.
Construction continued throughout the Alaskan winter amd saw temperatures as extreme as
-70 degrees below zero, and the wilderness the pipe runs through is so remote that highways
had to be built just to get construction crews to their job sites.
Before, during, and long after its construction safety concerns and the fears of environmentalists
raged, with many fearing that the pipeline would lead to disastrous spills that would
ruin some of the world’s last untouched pristine wilderness, and yet to date the Alaska
pipeline has proven to be one of the safest ways of transporting oil ever created- far
safer than the alternative of shipping oil through seas filled with crushing ice that
could tear a ship to pieces.
But the story of the pipeline starts nearly 150 years ago, with whalers in the mid 19th
century recognizing the substance the local Inupiat people called pitch as petroleum.
An initial survey of the Alaskan north confirmed petroleum seepage at several different locations,
and it was clear that this remote wilderness was literally bursting with oil.
However with difficult terrain and a deadly cold winter, any interest in developing these
far-flung oil fields waned, at least until after the First World War.
With the Navy converting its ships from coal to fuel oil, it became imperative that the
United States maintain a strategic reserve of oil in case another major war came along.
Thus President Warren G. Harding established a series of Naval Petroleum Reserves to be
set aside for future drilling by the US Navy.
These reserves spanned the United States, but some of the largest deposits of oil would
be those found throughout Alaska.
Out of the Alaskan oil reserves, those located along the northern coast would prove to be
the most substantial, rivaling in size those located in Texas or the Middle East.
Sending geologist to gauge the true petroleum and coal wealth of Alaska, the US Geological
Survey mapped northern Alaska between 1923 and 1925, confirming that the land held rich
reserves of coal and oil both.
However the daunting challenge posed by Alaska's fierce winters delayed any exploitation of
these reserves until after World War II, when in 1944 the US Navy funded exploration for
oil all along the Brooks Range.
Discovering several oil fields, the sheer difficulty presented by Alaska's weather and
remoteness both once more discouraged their exploitation.
Oil could be more easily pumped out of the ground in the milder climates of the lower
48, or even in less adverse weather conditions in Canada.
For the immediate future, the pristine wilderness of Alaska would be protected by its remoteness
and brutally cold winter.
Yet commercial exploitation of oil fields in southern Alaska eventually drew great interest
to the state and its staggering reserves of oil.
Northern Alaska held some of the world's largest reserves of oil, but the issue of transporting
it out of the region remained.
Fearing a Japanese invasion into Canada and then into the United States via Alaska, the
United States Army Corps of Engineers had constructed the Alaskan Highway during World
War II.
Until that point no true roads ran from the lower 48 states of the US to Alaska, and all
travel was via air or ship.
The new highway ensured that large numbers of troops could be quickly dispatched to head
off a Japanese invasion, but in peacetime it could be used to link the far north with
the rest of the US’s economy.
Yet Alaska was still incredibly remote, and the only major commercial sea ports were on
the southeast end of the state where the ocean remained largely ice free even during the
bitter winter.
Up north however the sea would lock down any port with thick ice for the majority of the
year, leaving only a short summer season for ships to get in and out.
A solution for pumping the incredible wealth of northern Alaska out of the ground was desperately
needed.
The first and most obvious solution was the creation of a transport pipeline, yet at the
time no pipeline in the world had ever been built that equaled the length of the one needed
to cross the entirety of Alaska.
Engineers feared that it was at present an unsurpassable technical challenge- oil would
not only have to be transported almost a thousand miles, but it would have to be heated during
the winter to keep the pipe flowing.
The technical challenges were staggering, and so alternatives were sought out.
Boeing proposed building a fleet of gigantic 12-engine tanker aircraft which would fly
oil from the fields to southern ports, but no fleet of planes would be able to fly enough
oil fast enough to make the enterprise commercially viable.
General Dynamics, builders of many of the Navy's high tech submarines, proposed building
a fleet of tanker submarines which would travel under the Arctic ice cap, but that too was
deemed too risky and cost-ineffective.
Yet another proposal involved extending the Alaskan Railroad all the way up north to Prudhoe
Bay, which was appealing but still didn't provide enough transport capability to be
truly profitable.
Lastly, a fleet of ice breaking oil tankers were proposed, and fresh out of options, were
ultimately seen as the most realistic and economically feasible idea.
Thus the Humble Oil and Refining Company sent a specially fitted oil tanker, the SS Manhattan,
up north to test the feasibility of transporting oil via ice-breaking tankers.
The Manhattan was a powerful ship fitted with an ice-breaking bow, powerful engines, and
hardened propellers to resist being crushed by ice flows.
However during its test run through the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Beaufort
Sea, the ship suffered damage to several cargo holds which quickly flooded with seawater,
and wind-blown ice forced the Manhattan to change course.
Ultimately it was escorted to safety by the Canadian ice breaker the CCGS John A. Macdonald.
Transporting oil out of the remote north via oil tanker was simply too risky, and so it
was back to the original idea: figure out how to build the at the time world's longest
pipeline.
Even before the SS Manhattan had left its home port for its exploratory run through
the north though, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System- or TAPS- had already been formed from
a coalition of ARCO, British Petroleum, and Humble Oil.
In 1969 TAPS asked permission from the US's Department of the Interior to begin geological
and engineering studies of the proposed pipeline route, but even before these feasibility studies
had begun the three oil companies had already chosen a route for the pipeline.
Planning to simply bury the pipeline as was standard everywhere around the world, work
was all set to begin when the Interior department sent personnel to analyze both the proposed
route and the oil companies plans.
The investigation quickly discovered that the route and the choice to simply bury the
pipeline was completely unfeasible, as the hot oil running through the buried pipeline
would heat the permafrost around it and the pipeline would fail, spilling millions of
barrels of oil in the process.
The oil company engineers had underestimated the difficulty of digging in the frozen permafrost,
and completely ignored the ramifications of heating that permafrost with hot oil.
It was clear that the oil companies had rushed their preparations in anticipation of having
the pipeline operational by late 1969, just months after beginning construction- a notion
labeled as ludicrous by Interior Department personnel.
These fundamental engineering issues along with claims by local natives demanding compensation
for the pipeline to pass through their lands brought along a freeze on any construction.
Meanwhile conservationists rallied against the pipeline, claiming that Alaska was a pristine
and untouched wilderness that should remain so.
Spurred by these protests, the Interior Department forced the oil companies to undertake an environmental
impact study for the proposed pipeline, a move that further delayed construction and
added greatly to the cost of the project.
For three years conservationists and Alaskan natives successfully blocked construction
of the pipeline, winning several major concessions from the oil companies to include crossing
points for caribou herds and money to help protect native species.
However, on October 17th, 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries announced
an oil embargo against the US in retaliation for its support of Israel during the Yom Kippur
War.
Importing 35% of its oil from foreign sources, the US was hard hit and gasoline prices skyrocketed,
resulting in severe shortages across the nation.
The American people demanded an answer, and two weeks later the US congress approved the
immediate construction of the Trans-Alaska pipeline, removing all legal blocks to its
construction.
At last after almost 4 years of delays and tens of millions of dollars invested, the
oil companies were free to start construction, and in March of 1974 work officially began
on the massive pipeline.
Work would go on year round, with workers facing brutally cold conditions and months
of perpetual dark in the Alaskan winter.
Yet the pipeline offered wages up to three times the national average, and a modern day
gold rush began as men and women from all over the United States rushed up north to
work on the pipeline.
So great was the influx of workers that towns across the formerly remote Alaskan wilderness
boomed in population, with the population in Valdez exploding from 1,350 in 1974 to
8,253 just two years later.
Along with the increase in population though came an explosion of crime, everything from
theft to murder to prostitution, and in many towns criminal elements set themselves up
to cater to the illicit needs of pipeline workers flush with cash.
The sale of drugs, alcohol- which was illegal for pipeline workers by order of the oil companies-
and sex boomed in towns all along the construction route, and eventually organized crime had
penetrated deep into the very bones of the massive project.
The theft of huge amounts of construction equipment, materials, and even brand new trucks
was not uncommon, yet the oil companies were so deeply invested by this point and eager
for construction to be done that they simply absorbed the losses.
Ultimately though the pipeline would be completed in 1977, and the first barrel of oil reached
Valdez on July 28th, 1977.
For three years tens of thousands of people labored in some of the greatest temperature
extremes on the planet, and total construction costs would come up at over $8 billion dollars.
However the pipeline would see the successful and safe extraction of billions of barrels
of oil that would have remained locked up for decades without its construction, and
ensure America's need for oil could be met in the event of international emergencies.
Today though the pipeline's daily output has fallen to a trickle of its former output as
fields in north Alaska are drying up.
Unless new fields are developed, the pipeline will inevitably close, though ongoing development
could see it last as far as 2075.
Would you have risked working in the Alaskan wilderness to build this incredible pipeline?Also,
check out our other video, Soldiers Caught in the Kajaki Landmine Trap.
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