Safety
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System
One of the world’s greatest civil engineering projects, the $8 billion Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) carries crude oil 800 miles south from Prudhoe B

One of the world’s greatest civil engineering projects, the $8 billion Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) carries crude oil 800 miles south from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean to a pipeline terminus at Port Valdez. Built between 1975 and 1977, the pipeline at the time was the largest and most expensive privately funded construction project ever undertaken.

The first tanker load of oil shipped out of Valdez in August 1977. Today, Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, a consortium of oil companies that includes BP, Phillips, ExxonMobil, Unocal, Williams and Amerada Hess, owns and operates the pipeline. Since starting up, TAPS has successfully transported more than 14 billion barrels of oil.

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