Throughout
much of the life of the pipeline, crude oil was moved
down the line by a series of ten operating pump stations. An additional
facility provided oil control capability and could have become a pump
station
if expansion by the system had been required. A twelfth station site
was also
available. Today only six of the original ten pump stations are being
used to
move oil through the line.(Production of oil on the North Slope has
been
declining because of the age of the oil fields, thereby reducing the
amount of
throughput of oil in the line, and thus requiring fewer pump stations.)
The heart of
each station is
the main pump building that houses gas-turbine-driven mainline pumps.
Most
stations have three pumps, each
of which can move 22,000 gallons of oil
each
minute, or up to 754,000 barrels a day (one barrel equals 42 gallons).
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