Word: alyeska
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., a consortium of eight oil companies, hopes to rebuild the station by mid-September, after which cold weather will make repairs virtually impossible. Otherwise, it would have to delay for another ten months the goal of increasing the pipeline's flow to its initial capacity of 1.2 million bbl. per day. That could cause financial problems for the state of Alaska; it has been counting on taxes from the pipeline, which are determined by the amount of oil actually moved, to finance 60% of its $1 billion current budget...
Strangely, now that the pipeline is completed, there is no place for all the oil to go. Government officials and executives of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the eight-company consortium* that built the line, overestimated demand for the oil's natural market: the West Coast. Between the time that oil was discovered and this week's turn-on, the nation went through two recessions, and the growth of oil demand has slowed, especially in California. Existing West Coast refineries could handle only a little more than half the pipeline's output by year...
Worker inefficiency has been one of the main sources of cost increases, although Faulkner said that ALYESKA, the consortium of oil companies that funded the pipeline, has improved the situation recently. Unions set the tone of work on the pipeline. It is to their advantage to spread the fixed amount of work over a longer time than would be ordinarily required, since this will increase employment. And due to "cost-plus" increased labor costs don't mean smaller profits for ALYESKA. "There just isn't a work ethic on the pipeline; in fact, you will probably be yelled...
...difficult. The worker on the pipeline makes his big money during the hours he puts in on overtime, which usually doubles the regular eight-hour working day. Faulkner said he found the mental tedium of a typical eighteen-hour day on the job agonizing. "You sell your soul to ALYESKA when you go to the 'line'," he said. But Faulkner acknowledged afterwards, "I'll probably end up going back there next summer, because where else can I earn that much money?" Looking at one of his paychecks, it is not difficult...
...total-that earlier this year were discovered to have been inspected sloppily or not at all. Some are buried under ice-covered river crossings, and they will have to be dug up and, if necessary, rewelded before the salmon return next spring. That chore, wryly says one Alyeska technician, promises to be "another wildly interesting experiment in arctic engineering." It could add to the project's cost, which has already soared from an early estimate of $900 million in the late 1960s to $7.7 billion today. Some officials reckon that the hassle over the welds will help push...