The Trans-Alaska Pipeline

Abstract

This case history describes the conception, planning, and construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). Originally conceived of by the owner oil companies as simply a means to move their newly discovered oil from a remote location to markets, the pipeline ultimately became a. project of great importance, in terms of both desirable and adverse consequences, to a variety of special interest groups and to every level of government. The expectations, pressures, and demands of these groups and of governmental bodies in effect converted a privately conceived and privately financed project into a quasi-public project. In the process the original design was significantly altered, the start of construction was delayed for years, and project costs escalated from an early estimate of approximately 900 million dollars to a final cost of nearly 8 billion dollars. Therefore this case history focuses on the TAPS project from two perspectives. One is concerned with the pipeline project itself: its conception, economic feasibility, technical feasibility and design, its planning and management, the actual construction sequence, and finally start-up of the oil flow through the pipeline. The other focuses on the efforts of the special interest groups (including government agencies) to shape the project so as to serve their needs, and on an evaluation of the results (impacts) of these efforts. Although the pipeline itself has been completed and is in operation, the total transportation system will not be completed until the means for transshipping oil eastward across the United States has been determined. In addition, the full impact of the project, both within Alaska and elsewhere, is still far from being understood. Thus the project is best viewed as one which represents the completion of a major component of a system, with the structure of the overall system and its effects not fully determined.