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Alaska Pipeline Background Information -Tankers Required To Cost $1.6 Billion Alyeska Pipeline Service Com- pany—The agent company formed to design, ibuild, operate and main- tain the Trans-Alaska Pipeline for the seven owners: Amerada Hess Corporation; ARCO Pipe Line Company; Exxon Pipe Line Com- pany; Mobil Pipe Line Company; Phillips 'Petroleum Company; So- hio Pipe Line Company, and Union Oil Company of California. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline—The pipeline to carry oil from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Coast to Valdez on Alaska's southcentral coast, where it will be transferred to tank- ers. Alaska—Alaska is the largest of the 50 states, occupying 586,412 square miles. The next three larg- est states—Texas, California and Montana — put together do not equal it. The total pipeline will oc- cupy only 12 square miles, or .002 of one percent of Alaska's square- mile area, with a temporary con- struction impact of an additional 50 to 60 square miles. Prudhoe Bay—An inlet in the Arctic Ocean shoreline 165 miles east of Point Barrow and about one-fourth of the distance from the Canadian border to the west coast of Alaska. A major oil discovery was made at Prudhoe Bay in 1968. Valdez—An ice-free port on the southern coast of Alaska, where the southern pipeline terminal and load- ing facilities will be located. Valdez harbor opens on Prince William Sound, which opens into the Gulf of Alaska. Valdez harbor is 12 miles long and 2]/2 miles wide and well protected from the open ocean. Wave heights and tidal currents are low. Fog does not persist for long periods. The channel depth is more than 100 fathoms, and its minimum width is 3,000 feet. North Slope—Alaska -is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean. The North Slope is that portion of Alaska's Arctic Plain sloping north from the Brooks Range to the ocean. Prudhoe oil reserves—The Amer- ican Petroleum Institute has con- servatively estimated "proved re- coverable oil reserves" at 9.6 billion barrels. "Proved reserves" are con- servative estimates of oil available for recovery. They are not esti- mates of oil actually present in the formation nor of the amount that may ultimately be recovered, which have ranged to 40 billion barrels and more. Pipeline capacity from the main field of Prudhoe Bay—Two million barrels-a-day. At startup, 1.2 million barrels-a-day. The most efficient rate is estimated at 1.5 million bar- rels-a-day. Present U.S. usage is about 17 million barrels-a-day, of which six million are imported. Tankers—Full pipeline capacity will require 3'5, ranging from 45,000 deadweight tons to 150,000 dead- weight tons. Destinations will be Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles. An estimated 2Yi tankers a day will be loaded at Val- dez. The tankers will be U.S.-flag vessels, manned by U.S. crews and replacing most foreign-flag tankers currently delivering foreign oil to West Coast ports. The estimated cost of the 35-ship fleet is $1.6 bil- lion. Construction time, cost—It will take three years and cost $4 billion- plus to build the line, pumping sta- tions and terminal facilities. Owner companies have invested more than $400 million in Alyeska already, and spent an additional $1.25 billion in leasing, exploration and develop- ment costs on the North Slope of Alaska. Jobs created — Direct employ- ment on the pipeline is expected to be about 8,600, with 2,300 more at the Prudhoe Bay fields. Secondary employment will mean a total of 25,000 to 30,000 jobs in the two peak years. In addition, the Mari- time Administration has estimated that tanker construction would generate 73,480 man-years of labor in shipyards and supporting indus- tries. Fleet maintenance would gen- erate 770 man-years of employment annually, with 3,000 man-years of crew and support services for the fleet. After the line is fully opera- tive, Prudhoe Bay operations ^nd the pipeline will employ about 1,500. Pipe—The pipe is made of high- stress steel and measures 48 inches in diameter and a half-
