In the US alone, there are millions of miles of pipelines carrying crude oil and different petroleum products to locations throughout the 48 mainland states. While the product begins its journey with major pressure, the product loses forward momentum over time and distance.

To beat this, pumping stations are positioned throughout the length of the pipeline to adjust the strain, pump the product along the line and monitor movement and other data concerning the transmittal of the product. (In pipeline methods carrying pure fuel, comparable stations are positioned throughout the line to assist push the product alongside, however they are called compressor stations.)

Pipeline pumping stations additionally enhance the by means of-put of the pipeline. In other phrases, if a pipeline needs to be able to have a higher via-put capacity, another pipeline pumping station could also be added to beat the problem.

Pipeline pumping stations could also be strategically positioned for his or her proximity to other equipment, or a pumping station may be constructed to assist push the product by way of a harder part of the pipeline, corresponding to over a mountain range.

There are a variety of several types of pumps that may be discovered in the pumping stations, together with a full head pump, which is a two-stage pump with the impellers in a collection, consisting of 1 inlet and one outlet. Additionally, there are half stage pumps with the impellers in parallel and together with two inlets and two outlets. Half stage pumps are able to handling twice the stream of full head pumps, however solely produce half the stress rise. Pumping stations might also house booster pumps, which transfer product from the storage tanks at the station into the primary line.

Pumping stations also include security equipment and home on-staff safety personnel to overcome any issues along the pipeline route. Moreover, pumping stations are sometimes the location for launching pipeline pigs to assist the line and examine the pipeline for any corrosion or different harm from the inside.

Pumping Stations at Work: Trans-Alaska Pipeline

Traveling a distance of more than 800 miles, the Trans-Alaska pipeline transports oil produced on the North Slope’s Prudhoe Bay to the Port of Valdez in southern Alaska for shipment by way of tankers to US markets.

This huge pipeline boasts 11 pumping stations, although the line was designed to home 12. Coming on-line in 1977, the pipeline first had eight pumping stations working, which picked up to eleven by 1980 as through-put ramped up. After each day capability has dropped over time, the pipeline now has 5 working stations with one reserve station.

Pumping Station 1 has a pumping capability of 420,000 barrels of oil per day, and Pumping Station 5 has a by means of-put capability of 150,000 barrels of oil per day. All the opposite stations home a pumping capability of fifty five,000 barrels of oil per day.