![]() ![]() ![]() That crude contributed millions of dollars in royalty and tax money to Alaska.Now there was no reason why education couldn't be properly funded and social services, hospitals," Heinze recalled."Everything got funded.It was a kind of wonderful, upbeat time. "We felt good, even though we were dog-tired and beat to crapĭavid Haugen, one of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.'s pipeline construction managers, remembered that when the project was over, he felt as if he'd lived two years for every one year on the pipeline.By 1978, Alaska's North Slope oil fields were producing 1.1 million barrels of oil each day. We'd just finished this horribly intense but yet somehow greatly satisfying period of our lives" during pipeline construction, Heinze explained. Some Alaskans hoped that life would return to the pre-pipeline daysĬars around the state carried bumper stickers reading: "Happiness is a Texan headed south with an Okie under each arm.But as the snow blew down the empty streets of Fairbanks that winter, not everyone was happy."If you were a barmaid, it was bad if you came to Alaska to hunt and fish, it was great," recalled Harold Heinze, a petroleum engineer who went on to become president of ARCO Alaska.For Heinze and other oil company officials who had permanently moved to Alaska, it was a time for reflection. Disaster, decline and hope for an aging mega projectīy Margaret Kriz Hobson | 07:09 AM EDT In the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, tankers are required to have two escort ships as they sail from the port of Valdez through Prince William Sound.Margaret Kriz Hobson/E&E News Third in a series.Read part one here and part two here.ANCHORAGE, Alaska On Aug.ġ, 1977, the oil tanker Arco Juneau sailed out of the port of Valdez carrying the first load of Prudhoe Bay oil to a refinery on the West Coast.The ship's departure marked the triumphant end to Alaska's nine-year transformation from an insolvent, frontier territory into an oil state.Alaska's journey began in 1968, when ARCO and Humble Oil & Refining Co.Discovered the largest oil field in North America on Alaska's frigid North Slope.Īfter overcoming years of legal battles, eight companies joined forces to build an 800-mile pipeline from northern Alaska to the ice-free port of Valdez.The last section of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) had been welded into place, and a steady flow of Alaska crude was being shipped to market.Across the state, tens of thousands of pipeline workers drawn to Alaska by the promise of adventure and large paychecks were beginning to scatter.
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