Engineering Economics of Long Petroleum Pipe Lines

Abstract

Much has been written and said recently about the methods used and materialsand equipment employed in building the long tubes that criss-cross a great partof the United States, like the pattern of a spider's web. This paper willdiscuss the fundamentals of design of these lines from the economic as well asthe engineering viewpoint, pointing out the effect of the volumes transported, and the load factor at which they are operated, on the unit costs oftransportation, as well as the effects on costs of the character of the fluidsthe lines are called upon to handle. Generally speaking, crude-oil pipe lines carry oil from the producing fieldsto the refineries. Sometimes part of the journey is by pipe line to a coastalpoint and tank ships are employed for the rest of the trip. The main lines of directional flow of crude oil through pipe lines in theUnited States are shown on Fig. I, but this, of course, does not always showindividual pipe lines. T.P. 1433