Shrinking Oil Supplies Put Alaskan Pipeline at Risk
By RUSSELL GOLD
[PIPELINE2] Reuters
The 800-mile-long Trans Alaska Pipeline has to keep oil relatively warm, even as outside temperatures reach -10 Fahrenheit. Dwindling oil production in recent years means less oil has been moving through, and the temperature of the crude has been steadily dropping. This can lead to dangerous ice plugs and wax build up, which can cause corrosion.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—When the famed Trans Alaska Pipeline carried two million barrels of oil a day, the naturally warm crude surged 800 miles to the Port of Valdez in three days and arrived at a temperature of about 100 degrees.
Now, dwindling oil production along Alaska's northern edge means the pipeline carries less than one-third the volume it once did—and the crude takes five times as long to get to its destination.
That leisurely flow means the oil is above ground longer and more exposed to Alaska's frigid weather; the crude sometimes arrives chilled to 40 degrees. As the flow and temperature continue to drop, experts say the risks of a clog or corrosion increase, as do the odds of ruptures and spills.
Unless a technological solution can be found, the arcane physics of crude flow may force the multibillion dollar, 48-inch-wide steel pipeline to shut down—and determine the fate of the largest oil field ever found in the U.S.
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Shell earlier this year canceled plans to drill in the Beaufort Sea this summer because, after five years, it couldn't get a federal air-emission permit for an offshore drilling rig. Its plans for drilling in the Chukchi Sea on Alaska's northwest coast are also held up by a legal dispute. Exxon Mobil is also waiting for federal environmental approval, and in February, the federal government denied ConocoPhillips a permit the company had been working on for five years.
Even if permits are approved and the lawsuit is resolved quickly, Shell's Mr. Slaiby says it would take 15 years to produce oil from the remote Chukchi Sea. He says he believes the pipeline would still be operational.
