Sohio/BP Trans Alaskan Pipeline Finance Inc.

Product Details

Certificate Type
Registered Bond

Date Issued
September 29, 1978 (olive)
April 16, 1976 (purple)

Canceled
Yes

Printer
American Bank Note Company

Signatures
Machine printed

Approximate Size
12" (w) by 8" (h)

Additional Details
NA

Historical Context

Sohio/BP Trans Alaska Pipeline Finance was incorporated in 1974 to raise almost half the estimated $6 billion cost of the Trans Alaska Pipeline project.

The company owned about 68% of the Sohio Pipeline Company, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sohio. The company also owned 32 percent by BP Pipelines Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The British Petroleum Company Limited.

The Trans Alaska Pipeline was built between 1974 and 1977 after the 1973 oil crisis caused a sharp rise in oil prices in the United States. This rise made exploration of the Prudhoe Bay oil field economically feasible. Environmental, legal, and political debates followed the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968, and the pipeline was built only after the oil crisis provoked the passage of legislation designed to remove legal challenges to the project.

In building the pipeline, engineers faced a wide range of difficulties, stemming mainly from the extreme cold and the difficult, isolated terrain. The construction of the pipeline was one of the first large-scale projects to deal with problems caused by permafrost, and special construction techniques had to be developed to cope with the frozen ground. The project attracted tens of thousands of workers to Alaska, causing a boomtown atmosphere in Valdez, Fairbanks, and Anchorage.

The first barrel of oil traveled through the pipeline in 1977, and full-scale production began by the end of the year. Several notable incidents of oil leakage have occurred since, including those caused by sabotage, maintenance failures, and bullet holes. As of 2010, the pipeline had shipped almost 16 billion barrels of oil.

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