[ARealMothersSonForever]

And the reason why the elk like it, and the reason why the elk population is growing, is that the oil pipeline has to be heated in order to allow oil to flow.

Whoo, boy. Uhh, the oil comes out of the ground rather hot. The large dissipating fins do not heat the pipeline. The reason the pipes are elevated is so that they do not disappear into mud. Them pipes aint heated by anything except the oil flowing through. Funny thing is, static electricity gets generated as well.

[Steely Tom]

Whoo, boy. Uhh, the oil comes out of the ground rather hot. The large dissipating fins do not heat the pipeline. The reason the pipes are elevated is so that they do not disappear into mud. Them pipes aint heated by anything except the oil flowing through.

There's also the little matter of a dozen gas-turbine powered pumping stations that are needed to keep the stuff moving. Most of the mechanical work they do on the column of oil ends up going into heat due to friction and turbulance.

[-=SoylentSquirrel=-]

"...The pipe itself may be configured with all kinds of specifications, such as pipe material & pressure and all kinds of conditions transporting. In some cases the viscosity of the material being transported must be modified in order to pass through the pipe in an efficient manner. For example, Crude oil may need to be heated before passing it through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline to compensate for arctic conditions. To accomplish this they have inline heaters periodically along the route.

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1123991

[SauronOfMordor]

Them pipes aint heated by anything except the oil flowing through.

You're right. I knew the lines were warm, and made the invalid assumption that they were heated to keep the oil flowing easily. wiki explains that the oil is hot coming out of the ground

[thackney]

Them pipes aint heated by anything except the oil flowing through.

Actually, some of the North Slope facilities have process heaters that heat the oil prior to leaving the drill site and before the main processing facility. At the facilities next to NPRA, we use process heaters at all the drill sites. Oil is sent to the Alpine Gathering center where after separating the oil, gas and water, it is heated again prior to pumping East past Kuparuk then Prudhoe Bay to the Alyeska Pipeline (TAPS).

We also heat the injection gas, the injection water and diesel for storage and freeze protection.