I am proud of my role in shaping Alaskan oil and gas development since the 1970s and in helping to produce “Pipeline Pioneers,” a new film series available at arcticopportunity.org about the people who helped build one of the country’s greatest and most critical engineering landmarks — the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). The series depicts TAPS through my eyes and those of four other Alaska pioneers — Dave Norton, Scott Harter, Kathleen Dalton and state representative Benjamin Nageak.
Since its construction in the 1970s, the 48-inch-diameter pipeline has transported oil from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope, 800 miles south to the port of Valdez. There, it’s loaded into tankers and shipped to refineries throughout the West Coast, a major energy-consuming region.
Starting in 1974, I worked as a project manager for Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, which built, maintains and operates the pipeline. At that time we all realized that we were part of an historic effort. We knew it was going to be one of a kind.
And it is. The technological marvel, which crosses three mountain ranges and 34 major rivers and streams, transformed Alaska’s economy and strengthened the nation’s energy infrastructure and security. The pipeline has moved more than 17 billion barrels of crude, generating more than $1.7 trillion in today’s dollars.
TAPS now transports approximately 8 percent of the country’s domestic crude oil production and continues to be the backbone of Alaska’s economy.
“There was a responsibility or a feeling that it was important to get this done, and get it done fast, to secure America’s energy future,” says Dave Norton, a friend of mine who is also featured in the film series.
Scott Harter remembers the early 1970s, when Americans had to wait in long lines to get gas because members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had enacted an oil embargo against the U.S.
“After living through waiting in lines to get gasoline, I can see that being held hostage for your energy is a real problem,” Harter says. “If we can provide a relief to that, we should. And Alaska did.”
Kathleen Dalton, whose late husband, James W. Dalton, has a state highway named after him because of his contributions to oil and gas discoveries, says that the pipeline “changed the complexion of Alaska” and natural security, reducing U.S. reliance on Middle Eastern oil.
Rep. Ben Nageak hails from Barrow, the largest city in the North Slope Borough, which is home to the oilfields around Prudhoe Bay and other potential energy development both on and offshore.
“They have airports in all the villages, they have power in all the villages, they have heat in all the villages, they have schools. Everything that was built in this municipality was built by revenues from oil and gas,” he says in the film. “It’s critical.”
But that way of life and the production of critical energy for the entire nation are both under threat. At its peak, TAPS transported 2.2 million barrels of crude per day. At our current rate of consumption, TAPS has the ability to deliver about 11 percent of the nation’s oil needs, a critical piece of a broad and diverse strategy that incorporates additional sources of energy like nuclear power, renewables, coal, etc.
But TAPS hasn’t come close to that in decades.
Instead, it’s seen a gradual decline since 1988, down to around a half million barrels per day today, and officials warn it could go offline if throughput dips below 300,000 barrels a day. The Arctic, onshore and off, has a lot more yet-to-be-tapped oil available. New exploration in the Chukchi Sea is a good start, but a new focus on permitting safe and responsible production in areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf would ensure continued operation of TAPS and the pride we all feel in having taken part in its historic construction.
With the right policies in place, the legacy of the Pipeline Pioneers will live on and America’s energy consumers will be all the better for it.
Dave Haugen, a former deputy commissioner for Alaska, is senior project manager for the Alaska Stand Alone Pipeline. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
