Alyeska celebrates 20 years of pumping North Slope crude.

• Author: Dalby, Ron
• Position: Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.

When the pipeline was built in the mid-1970s, few people thought it would operate much beyond the late 1990s. More oil discoveries and better recovery techniques demolished that conclusion long ago.

Alaska's economic heart moves north to south at a steady 5.5 miles per hour. About trotting speed, or perhaps the rate of a fast walk. It takes the oil about 6.2 days to get from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez.

The basis of Alaska's economic heart can be measured in gallons, though it's mostly measured in barrels, each barrel being the equivalent of 42 gallons. About 1.4 million barrels start south every day now, down from a high of 2.1 million barrels a day less than 10 years ago. But, this is still more oil every day that anyone expected when that first barrel of Prudhoe Bay crude oil entered the pipeline two decades ago on June 20, 1977. Then everybody expected that the Prudhoe Bay oil field would be exhausted by the late 1990s and that we would be looking at shutting down the pipeline.

Part of that is true. The actual Prudhoe Bay field is slowing its rate of production - it's in decline if you prefer' to say it that way. But, other, smaller deposits have been located in the area, and these are gradually taking up some of the slack and helping keep the pipeline full.

Even more significant is the fact that the amount of oil sent through the pipeline is expected to level off from its current decline and perhaps increase slightly by the end of the century. "No decline after '99" is a phrase being heard more and more these days from oil companies busy finding and developing new North Slope oil deposits.

All this means more work into a distant future for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the operator of the trans-Alaska pipeline.

APSC celebrated 20 years of pumping North Slope Crude oil earlier this summer with a round of family and community picnics in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Valdez, Delta Junction and Glennallen, the five largest towns along the 800 mile route. That took care of the in-town employees and those who were on break from their two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off shift in a pump station.

But those who had to work were not forgotten, either. In the mess hall at Pump Station #4 last June, a sign on the wall announced a special anniversary meal celebrating 20 years of moving North Slope crude. Pump station workers would dine on king crab and beef Wellington - about as much of a party as ever happens in an environment where you work 12 hours on, 12 hours off...