In 1968, oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in the North Slope, located in northern Alaska between the Brooks Range Mountains and the Beaufort Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean). A consortium of oil companies planning to produce the oil determined that a pipeline offered the best means to transport crude oil from the North Slope to a navigable port in southern Alaska where it could be shipped by tanker to refineries in the continental United States. The pipeline route would cover 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez, the northernmost ice-free port in the United States.

The Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, named after the Aleut word Alyeska meaning mainland, was established in 1970 and charged with designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining the Trans Alaska Pipeline System, commonly called TAPS. At the time, construction of the pipeline was the largest privately financed construction project ever attempted, and cost over $8 billion when completed.

Pipeline construction began in March 1975 and was finished in June 1977. Crude oil began flowing in the pipeline on June 20, 1977 and the first tanker filled with North Slope crude oil left Valdez on August 1, 1977.

The 48-inch diameter steel pipeline runs 800 miles and crosses three mountain ranges and over 800 rivers or streams. Moving "hot" oil across the permafrost rich soil of Alaska presented a special challenge to pipeline designers. Typical pipeline construction at the time involved burying most pipelines, but because of the permafrost through most of Alaska, large segments of the trans-Alaska pipeline were elevated above ground to keep the permafrost from melting. About half of the 800 mile pipeline is buried in a conventional manner.

More than 15 billion barrels have moved through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System since start up in 1977. The volume of oil flowing through the pipeline has decreased from a peak of 2.1 million barrels per day (mbpd) in 1988 to about 740,000 bpd in 2007.

Alaska today supplies nearly 17 percent of the United States’ domestic crude oil production. Revenues from oil production and transportation provide approximately eighty percent of funding for the state government in Alaska. In addition, a specially dedicated account funded by oil revenues, the Permanent Fund, has a balance of over $22 billion.

The consortium of companies that own TAPS today includes: 

BP Pipelines (Alaska) Inc. 46.93%
ConocoPhillips Transportation Alaska, Inc. 28.29%
ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, 20.34%
Unocal Pipeline Company, 1.36%
Koch Alaska Pipeline Company, L.L.C., 3.08%

Headquartered in Anchorage, the company also maintains operations in Fairbanks and Valdez and employs almost 800 people statewide, with 1000 more employed by independent contractors working for the company.

Over 19,000 oil tankers have been loaded with Alaska crude oil in Valdez since the pipeline began operation. The Marine Terminal cost $1.4 billion to build, covers 1,000 acres, and includes 18 oil storage tanks with a total capacity of over 9 million barrels. The Terminal has four tanker loading berths, two of which have special vapor control systems.

Alyeska Pipeline spends over $60 million annually to oil spill prevention and response in Prince William Sound, and has dedicated over 300 personnel to this effort, mostly through its Ship Escort/Response Vessel System (SERVS). Created in July 1989, SERVS is considered one of the best oil spill prevention and response forces in the world. The SERVS mission is three fold: prevention, preparation, and response. Each laden tanker is escorted through Prince William Sound to the Gulf of Alaska by response vessels capable of assisting a distressed tanker. Oil spill response equipment has been pre-stationed throughout the Sound for rapid response.

Updated: May 8, 2008

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