Alaska Pipeline: Viable Only Ten More Years?

Link here.

The Trans Alaska Pipeline System, Alaska's main economic artery, may only have 10 years of service left if oil flows continue to dwindle at current rates, according to a report issued on Wednesday by the system's operator.

The pipeline can operate reliably with oil flows as low as 350,000 barrels per day, but throughput below that threatens its viability.

That threshold -- expected to be reached in about a decade if oil production continues to decline at current rates -- is the first ever identified as a specific minimum throughput for reliable operations.

The 800-mile pipeline shipped an average of about 605,000 barrels per day in May, less than a third of the 2 million barrel peak achieved in 1988.

Yup. And North Dakota will exceed 605,000 bbls long before the decade is out.