PRUDHOE BAY
“OIL IN!”
JUNE 20, 1977
by Frank Baker
June 20, 2007, the eve of the summer solstice, marks the anniversary of an important date in Alaska’s history — when the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, or TAPS, received first oil from the Prudhoe Bay field.
Extraordinary days in history most often take on the appearance of ordinary days, and so it was on that gray, overcast morning of June 20, 1977 at 10:26 a.m. when pumps were started, valves were opened, and the first crude oil from Prudhoe Bay – North America’s largest oil field – flowed into the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) for its 800-mile journey down the pipeline to Valdez, where it would be loaded aboard a tanker destined for the U.S. west coast.
It was the eve of the summer solstice, but it was chilly at Prudhoe Bay as scores of reporters and dignitaries huddled behind Pump Station 1 at Milepost 0, the beginning of the pipeline, waiting patiently to witness the event.
For the field operators, BP and ARCO, it was a longawaited moment that was the culmination of a major push into the Arctic that began nearly 20 years earlier, when their geologists ventured north to probe this remote frontier. For the companies’ technicians, operators and others working in the Prudhoe Bay field, the day was anticlimactic. The major work – drilling the wells, getting the flow lines and other pipelines constructed, building and testing the production facilities – had been done.
They were ready. They waited day after day for those words, the command: “Pump Station 1 is ready to receive oil.”
For the U.S. news media, the startup was a TAPS startup story rather than an oil field story. How would the pipeline perform on its trial run? When would the oil front reach Valdez? The wager captured everyone’s imagination. The feat of barging oil field facilities thousands of miles from the U.S. west coast to the Arctic Ocean; the massive effort of constructing the power station and other oil field facilities in a hostile Arctic environment; the multi-billion dollar investments needed to produce that first barrel of oil, were for the most part unheralded.
In its remote spot near the top of the world, Prudhoe Bay has over the past 30 years told its own story through a partnership with Alaska that has benefited both the state and the industry. The State of Alaska has benefited from billions of dollars of taxes and royalties; billions of dollars more from investment; the creation of the Permanent Fund that has grown to more than $38 billion; thousands of Alaska jobs and the emergence of many local companies that support the oil and gas industry. Alaska has been a key supplier of energy for the United States. More than 15 billion barrels of North Slope oil have been sent to market in the U.S., accounting for an average 15-20% of the nation’s production for three decades.
But over the past 30 years Prudhoe Bay has yielded more than oil, revenue and jobs. It has been a proving ground for oil field technology and Arctic engineering. It has been a one-of-a-kind, outdoor laboratory for environmental science.
Because of Prudhoe Bay, there are now 24 separate oil fields on the North Slope – five of which are among the nation’s top 10 largest producing fields. And despite the natural oil production decline of the big fields, the North Slope is today producing about 800,000 barrels per day – a significant contribution to America’s energy production.
Because of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska is poised to reap a new Arctic bounty – the trillions of cubic feet of natural gas lying beneath the surface, natural gas that an energy-hungry America needs.
A few years after his moon landing on Apollo 17, former astronaut and New Mexico Senator Harrison Schmidt visited Prudhoe Bay during winter. After being shown around the area, he commented, “if we can live and work here, we can go to Mars.”
He got it right. In one sentence he revealed a deep understanding of Prudhoe Bay’s importance to Alaska, the nation, and the world. Prudhoe Bay has been a testament to what human beings can do when they set their mind to it.
