Pipeliners beat designers across Panama's jungle

Journal Article · Thu May 27 04:00:00 EDT 1982 · Eng. News-Rec.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6542500

Hard-driving pipeline crews are slashing a path down the steep slopes of the Andes range on Panama's Caribbean coast for the final leg of an 80-mile Pacific-Atlantic oil link that will reduce shipping times for North Slope crude to Gulf Coast refineries. When completed in late August, the trans-isthmus tube will be able to drain the Panama Canal of Alaskan oil, which currently must be pumped from large tankers to 65,000 ton ships before passage through the 50-mile cut. The 36 and 40-in.-dia pipe will connect an existing Northville oil transshipment terminal at Puerto Armuelles, near Costa Rica on the Pacific Coast, with a new 2.5-million-bbl storage area at Chiriqui Grande on the Caribbean coast. Two pumping stations, one at Puerto Armuelles and another at the base of the Serrania de Tabasara mountains, will lift the oil 4,000 ft over the Continental Divide. Gravity flows of 7 1/2 ft per second down the steep drop to the swamps along the Caribbean will feed three 833,000-bbl tanks being built on a hillside overlooking Chiriqui Bay. From there, two 36-in. lines will feed concrete-coated pipe sections trenched into the surf zone and placed on the muddy bottom for the remaining distance to two marine loading buoys over a mile offshore. The catenary anchor-leg mooring buoys are designed to handle tankers of up to 160,000 tons in 65 ft of water at maximum fill rates of 120,000 bbl per hour.

• OSTI ID: 6542500
• Journal Information: Eng. News-Rec.; (United States), Journal Name: Eng. News-Rec.; (United States) Vol. 208:21; ISSN ENREA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
022000* -- Petroleum-- Transport
Handling
& Storage
CENTRAL AMERICA
CONSTRUCTION
COOPERATION
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
LATIN AMERICA
PANAMA
PETROLEUM
PIPELINES
SHIPS
TANKER SHIPS
TRANSPORT