Out of Keystone debate’s glare, pipelines going in nationwide

Fuel Fix ^ | March 16, 2015 | Associated Press

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In a far corner of North Dakota, just a few hundred miles from the proposed path of the Keystone XL pipeline, 84,000 barrels of crude oil per day recently began flowing through a new line that connects the state’s sprawling oilfields to an oil hub in Wyoming.

In West Texas, engineers activated a new pipeline that cuts diagonally across the state to deliver crude from the oil-rich Permian Basin to refineries near Houston. And in a string of towns in Kansas, Iowa and South Dakota, local government officials are scrutinizing the path of pipeline extensions that would pass nearby.

While the Keystone project awaits a final decision, scenes like these are unfolding almost every week in lesser-known developments that have quietly added more than 11,600 miles of pipeline to the nation’s domestic oil network.

Overall, the network has increased by almost a quarter in the last decade. And the work dwarfs Keystone. About 3.3 million barrels per day of capacity have been added since 2012 alone — five times more oil than the Canada-to-Texas Keystone line could carry if it’s ever built.

[thackney]

Excerpted for AP

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http://www.pipeline101.com/the-history-of-pipelines/1800

1863: The Teamsters & Pipeline Gathering

The first discoveries were transported to rail stations by Teamsters using converted whiskey barrels and horses. From the very beginning, transportation was essential with the Teamsters holding the first regional monopoly position. They charged more to move a barrel of oil 5 miles by horse than the entire rail freight charge from Pennsylvania to New York City. Despite considerable ridicule, threats, armed attacks, arson, and sabotage, the first wooden pipeline, which was about 9 miles in length, was built in 1862; in essence bypassing the Teamsters.