The San Francisco call., 1910-05-04
TIDEWATER PIPE
Line CONGESTED
Producers Company Now Faces
Necessity OF Doubling Its
Capacity
Proposed California to Arizona
Outlet Expected to Solve
the Problem

Aside from the storage proposition,
says the California Oil World, the queS-
tion now foremost with the officials OF
the Producers transportation company
is probably that of doubling the me
from Junction to tidewater- me PlN-
otal factor in determining this venture
no doubt. is the proposed Cahfornia-
Arizona pipe line. promoted BY the IN
terests identified with the producers
transportation company. Should the
Arizona line be constructed IL Woutd
relieve the pressure of production IN
the Kern river district and the Mchlt-
trick-Sunset- Midway country, thereby
bringing the amount OF oil to be han
died by the Producers system TO
point nearer it's capacity.
AS the situation now stands it would
seem that either the doubling OF the
line from Junction to tidewater Is ao-
solutely necessary, or another outlet
for the crude produced by the aSencies
over and above the capacity or the
system must be arranged for. Con-
sidering the opportunities afforded for
the distribution of crude in the Ari-
zOna and contiguous markets IL would
seem further that the construction or q
pipe line to that territory in the end
would be more economical, all cond1-
tions considered. than the construction
of another line to tidewater from the
Junction.
PIPE LINE BEATS SHIPS
Two eight inch lines to Avila, oper-
ated to full capacity. would run ap-
proximately $4,000 to $4,000 barrels a
day of crude, and TO handle this amount
would require a fleet of tank ships
that would take a mighty big amount
of money to buy. a tank vessel OF So
600 barrels crude capacity costs in the
neighbOrhood of half a million dollars,
not less than that figure, and figured
on this basis. money for water trans
portation runs, up pretty fast
Considering this proposition further.
the Santa Maria district must not be
lost sight of. There are hundreds. of
acres of oil lands in this district owned
by the Union oil company. and while
this is not now being developed TO any
great extent. there is no telling when
it may be started or found necessary
to start In addition to this is the
output of other companies which must
have an outlet, and the logical outlet
for this district is tidewater at Avila.
Take, then, the Santa Maria output
together with the $4,000 barrels daily
which the single line Of the Producers
is now able to handle, and this makes
an available supply Of crude at tide
water that already overtaxes storage
and water transportation facilities.
The way it looks is that the Arizona
pipe line would solve the question of
ndnoI1nS the prOduCL1On or the agency
over and above the capacity of the
present Producers line. at the same
time opening up a huge fleet of tank
vessels, large storage facilities and
other expenses.
The total storage capacity OF the line
is 1,960.000 barrels. although the net
storage room would be considerably
less than this for the reason that steel
tanks can not be filled more than about
one foot Of the top, owing to the
necessity for room for expansion when
the oil is heated before running In
addition to the steel storage, earthen
reservoirs have been leased in the Kern
River and Sunset districts, which aug
ments TO a considerable extent the
storage capacity of the system as il
now stands The steel storage con-
tracted for will bring the gross steel
storage capacity up to approximately
100000 barrels. and added to this the
earthen reservoirs already leased and
others that could be procured IL neces-
sary. would bring the storage room I'D
to approximately 100000 barrels.