Alaska: Part Seven "Black Gold"

My last Alaska post showed the picturesque beauty of my hometown, Valdez. Across the bay from Valdez is the terminus of the Trans-Alaskan Oil Pipeline. This map shows the Pipeline route and the location of the 12 Pump Stations. My dad worked at the Valdez Terminal and various Pump Stations for 20 years. I was a tour guide on the Terminal during my college summers.

This map is totally unrelated, but equally important. It shows how big Alaska is compared to the rest of the "Lower 48." Yes, it's over twice the size of Texas. But this post isn't going to rip on Texas. In fact, Texas and Alaska have about the same amount of oil reserves, or "BLACK GOLD." So, back to the tour from my college days (with updated info):

Alaskan oil is drilled in Prudhoe Bay (PS1), at the top of the state, and passes through 800 miles of pipe to the northern most ice free port in the US, Valdez (PS12). More than 15 billion barrels have moved through the pipe in the 31 years it's been in operation.

Tankers unload their dirty ballast water at the Valdez Terminal. They have to stay low in the water, as if they were full of oil on the trip TO Valdez, or they'd tip over, so they are full of sea water mixed with residual oil from previous trips.

The Valdez plant treats the ballast water and puts it back into the sea (recovering 800 barrels of oil a day). There have been almost 20,000 tankers loaded with oil, each one holding 9 million barrels of oil. The tankers travel as far as Lousiana and Oklahoma for refinement (through the Panama Canal).

The Oil Pipeline supplies nearly 17% of the US domestic crude oil production (It was 20% when I was a tour guide, in '92!). Revenues from oil production/transportation provide approximately 80% of the funding for the Alaska State Gov't.

In addition, a specially dedicated account funded by oil revenues (The Permanent Fund) has a balance of over $22 billion. If you know anything about Alaskans, we like to brag that we are PAID to live there. It's true. The interest from the Permanent Fund is divided between all the Alaska residents, who have lived there one year and don't have a felony. When I was in 4th grade the check was the smallest ever, at around $300. When I was a sophomore, it was the largest, at close to $2,000. My parents always made me save my PF Dividend. Those checks and my lifeguard paychecks funded my college education.

Thank you Alaskan Oil for directly improving my life. This was taken the year you only gave me $300, but I still love you! You can see the Oil Terminal behind us . . . just a lovely photo op of Daddy's workplace for the relatives in the "Lower 48."

I've grown up as a strong PRO-DRILLING, fossil fuels kinda-girl. You can imagine the surprise on my friend face, at church aerobics, when she mentioned she thought it was a mistake to drill for more oil, and we should all drive Electric Cars. Boy, did she get the lecture of her life from a very 'heated' Sarah. Some people say, "Don't mess with Texas" but we Alaskan's are fighters, too!