Alaska Pipeline: Updates

Updates

May 30, 2021: why President Biden approved COP's giant Willow Field in Alaska. It was all about saving the TAPS -- a national security issue. 

September 29, 2015: the original post was in response to the 2011 leak in the Alaska pipeline but discussed the very viability of that pipeline. With Shell calling it quits in the Arctic -- just a few days ago -- where they drilled was uneconomical for more drilling -- raises the specter of the very viability of the Alaska pipeline. 

Original Post

 

I'm posting updates of the Alaska pipeline situation (the 2011 BP leak) where I originally posted the information.

This has been on the news several times today on CNBC today (January 12, 2011). I think there's a bigger story than the media is reporting: if production of oil can't keep the pipeline full, the pipeline will have to be shut down. Under best scenario (which includes no new drilling which the American people / administration want) the pipeline will shut down within ten years.

Under worse situation, it could shut down within a couple of years.

And folks still wonder if North Dakota could surpass Alaska's production?

Here's the CNBC story: [comments those of the blog's author]

The four-day shutdown of the Trans Alaska Pipeline, which sent a jolt through world energy markets, pushing the price of oil up $4 a barrel in two trading days, could be a sign of things to come, according to officials

That's because the 33-year-old pipeline could outlive its usefulness, unless new sources of oil are developed in northern Alaska. [Not gonna happen under this administration.]

The flow of oil through the 800-mile pipeline was partially restored late Tuesday. Officials hope to have it fully restored in a matter of days, with another brief shutdown to install a bypass around a leak at a pumping station that led to the initial shutdown. The pipeline is now running at a rate of around 400,000 barrels per day.

But even at full strength, currently around 650,000 barrels per day, the flow is a fraction of what it once was. At its peak in the late 1980s, the pipeline carried more than 2 million barrels per day. It was designed to carry 1.5 million per day, according to Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, the consortium that owns and operates the line.

With the flow decreasing by around 5 percent a year, officials say it could soon become impractical to operate the system, both because of engineering and economics.