Show BUSINESS t ind the I MARKET 1 Oil AND ANI GAS PIPELINES With the spate of oC publicity about tanker accidents and oil spills it Is often overlooked that transport of oC oil and gas Is not confined to ships at sea and railroad tank cars on shore Actually this country Is crisscrossed with thousands of oC miles of oC underground pipelines delivering petroleum and related products quietly efficiently efficiently ef eC and for the most part with remarkable safety Historically pipelines do not date Lite much further back than World War II II Prior to that ocean tankers transported the bulk of oC petroleum with railroad tank cars also involved in a small way The onset of WW II bringing with it the German U U- boat effectively stifled oil transport by tanker and created a need for land on-land bulk tran- tran of oil and gas from sources in the Southwest to the heavily industrialized states and cities of th the northeast lUG BIG INCH High priority was given to construction of the Big Dig Inch petroleum pipeline running from Longview Texas with eventual terminus at eastern refineries in Pennsylvania and New Jersey Actually line size is inch 24 diameter pipe This runs I 1098 miles over varied terrain including more than river and stream crossings A companion line called Little Big Inch was also constructed parallel to Big Inch to carry petroleum products from Texas refineries The success of these two carrying ducts duds led to a proliferation of pipelines pipelines' throughout the country for forthe the the purpose of moving oil natural l gas petroleum products and even solids in liquid suspension from sites of origin to use end-use destinations OFFSHORE PIPELINES As the search for oil and gas went offshore another phase of pipelining began to develop While some quantities of crude oil can be lifted from offshore production pk by tanker such a system is generally too cumbersome to be useful And short of liquefaction there is no practical means of surface transport of offshore natural gas Hence the oil and gas service industry acquired expertise in laying oil and gas pipeline for considerable distances offshore and at substantial water depths The Gulf of Mexico was the first to see offshore pipelines as some highly productive natural gas leases were activated Offshore platforms are generally connected to each other by feeder lines which in turn join a main to shore The pipe size on the latest gas line runs up to 42 inches in diameter As of today pipelines of this dimension and larger are being laid in many parts of the world the North Sea the Middle East and the Far East Some of these regions experience the very worst weather and sea sa conditions conditions con con- and it requires the most highly sophisticated equipment and skills in order to construct such undersea lines LA LAY Y EQUIPMENT IE T The largest pipe-lay pipe barge in inthe inthe inthe the world is now at work on a mile Zoo pipeline network in the Gulf of Mexico The barge itself is BO feet in length HO feet wide and and has a depth of 50 feet It is capable of laying pipe in water 1 1100 feet deep To Tu position itself properly the barge has twelve mooring an an- Certain sea bottom torn conditions ma may call for trenching and covering the pipeline done by bury barges dragged along the ocean floor In place In-place place inspection of pipe may be accomplished accomplisher by submersible vehicles divers or television In case of damage from anchors seabed erosion or ruptures lay barges bargl's have the capability of retrieving and anel repairing pipeline sections I Testimony to the technical reliability of this Specialized specialise facet of the oil and gas service industry is that there has hall been no major offshore pipeline accidents as contrasted to tl some of the recent major f surface oil t t |