ENSTAR 50th anniversary: company expects to keep gas flowing.

• Author: Freeman, Louise
• Position: UTILITIES - ENSTAR Natural Gas Co.

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In 1964, when the largest earthquake ever recorded in North America hit Anchorage, one of the things most vital to the functioning of the downtown area was disrupted--the supply of electricity. The natural gas line broke at Seventh Avenue and Post Road, shutting down the city's main power plant at 5 p.m. on March 27. The company that rushed to remedy this situation was Anchorage Gas, a young company, just three years old. In only 30 hours, they managed to restore the supply of gas to the two gas-turbine generators that provided downtown with electricity. They accomplished this quick repair by running a temporary pipeline aboveground with the help of equipment and manpower from several power companies in the Pacific Coast Gas Association in Seattle.

Anchorage Gas, now known as ENSTAR Natural Gas Co., began as a small operation in 1961 and is marking its 50-year anniversary this year, with a current total of 180 employees. The gas transportation and distribution company got its start in 1959 when a group of investors in Texas saw the potential market for gas-generated electricity in a growing city that had, until then, supplied its energy needs with fuel oil and coal. In 1960, Anchorage Gas started laying pipeline to Anchorage from a Kenai Peninsula gas field owned by producers Ohio Oil Co. (now Marathon) and Union Oil of California (now UNOCAL).

Anchorage Gas encountered a significant challenge in laying pipe across nine-mile-wide Turnagain Arm, which experiences the second highest tidal changes in North America. The first attempt failed; a better way had to be found than using tractors and tugboats to haul the pipe across the challenging expanse. The pipes had been pulled into place on float bags, which were then popped. In theory, the concrete-weighted pipes would then sink into place; it didn't work. Anchorage Gas met with better success when they brought in a 240-foot pipe-laying barge. Sections of pipe were welded together on deck and then lowered into a ditch formed by high-pressure water and air pumps. Simultaneously, Anchorage Gas had been laying a network of 28 miles of distribution lines to business and homes throughout Anchorage. Natural gas began to flow through the completed system in July 1961. The first customer to receive a meter and have gas delivered to their building was Rice Bowl Restaurant, now the oldest Chinese restaurant in Anchorage, which was then on Fifth Avenue.

CHALLENGING TIMES

In 1962...