A Proposal For Transportation Of Prudhoe Bay Gas To Market
Authors: Marsden Sullivan S. 
Published: December 2007

Eleven years ago oil and gas were discovered at Prudhoe Bay in Alaska. Oil started flowing to market Prudhoe Bay in Alaska. Oil started flowing to market 2 years ago through the Alyeska pipeline. At about the same TIME the government of Canada and the U.S. agreed in principle to the route for a 4,800-mile long (7720-km), mostly 48-in. diameter pipeline to bring the gas to markets in the lower 48 states. The estimated cost of this started at $10 billion and has been escalating since then. Because of this and the expected high delivery cost for the gas, no financial institutions have been willing to undertake the funding of this project.

It is time to look again at other ways to utilize thus valuable resource that will benefit our energy economy. Our major need at the present time and into the near future is motor fuel, preferably unleaded, for our automobiles. The supply of gas in the lower 48 states is presently ample because of greater exploration due to higher allowed gas prices.

Our proposal is simple, straightforward, realizable, and more economical than any gas pipeline. The gas should be chemically converted to methanol at Prudhoe Bay and then this pumped in surplus capacity Prudhoe Bay and then this pumped in surplus capacity in the now operable Alyeska oil pipeline to Valdez. Next, it would be shipped by tanker both to the West Coast and through the Panama Canal to terminals where it would be blended with unleaded gasoline stock to make gasohol. This is usually a 10$ solution of either methanol or ethanol in gasoline; and hence it will expand our motor fuel supply by this amount. Improvements in automobile performance also may be expected.

In this paper the many facets of this proposal are reviewed. These include getting the methanol plants to Prudhoe Bay and operating them there, plants to Prudhoe Bay and operating them there, transporting the methanol by pipeline and tanker, and utilizing the methanol in our energy economy. To the extent that they are available, costs also are presented. presented

Introduction

In this time of grouting energy problems for the United States, it is perhaps ironic that one of our major resources at the present time lies isolated and untapped. The natural gas associated with the crude oil at Prudhoe Bay in northeastern Alaska is unaccessible to us now, and even if the present proposals of various organizations should present proposals of various organizations should materialize, it still would not be available to our economy until at least late 1984.1 The increased exploration for natural gas in the lower 48 states resulting from higher allowed prices has taken the pressure off our need for this resource now, but at the same time our large and growing appetite for gasoline has led to our present shortage of this commodity.

Prudhoe Bay natural gas may be the means to alleviate our automobile fuel problem in the near future, while at the same time help us to stear our energy supplying industries to the use of renewable energy sources such as alcohols.

The term "gasohol" is a new one that has 2 entered our vocabulary within the past years or so. This is simply a dilute solution of either methanol (CH3OH or MEOH) or ethanol (C2H, OH or ETOH) in gasoline. While the word is relatively new, the concept of using this as an automotive fuel has been known and used for decades in many parts of the world. Although gasohol prepared with ETOH made as a petrochemical is possible, that made from fermentation of agricultural products is receiving greater attention in the press these days. MEOH usually is manufactured from natural gas in the lower 42 states and elsewhere in the world. It can be used to make a gasohol just as effective as that from ETOH, but with somewhat different physical properties.

We are proposing that the associated natural gas from the Prudhoe Bay oilfield be converted to MeOH in petrochemical plants of the sort now in use elsewhere.