NOVEMBER 29, 1997 - ANCHORAGE -- During this Thanksgiving weekend, the Trans Alaska Pipeline will mark a milestone as workers in Valdez, Alaska receive the 12 billionth barrel of oil produced on Alaska's North slope.

Produced at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska on Monday, November 24, the 12 billionth barrel has taken six days to travel from Alaska's North Slope to Valdez, Alaska. From there it will be loaded onto a tanker, sent to a west coast refinery, and brought to Americans in the form of gasoline, heating oil, and other oil-based products as diverse as aspirin and compact disks.

"This Thanksgiving, while many Americans are enjoying a meal with friends and family, the men and women who run the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system will be hard at work delivering this country's oil," said Bob Malone, President and Chief Executive of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, the firm that built and operates the Pipeline. "Because of their effort, we have been safely delivering oil for twenty years."

One of every five barrels of oil produced in the United States moves through the Alaska Pipeline, which this year celebrated its 20th anniversary. The 800-mile, 4ft. diameter pipeline carries almost one-and-a-half million barrels of oil each day over three mountain ranges and 834 rivers and streams, and across some of the most rugged terrain in North America.

Alyeska Pipeline Service Company (Alyeska is an Aluet word meaning "mainland" and is the native name for Alaska) designed, constructed and operates the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Alyeska, incorporated in 1970, is owned by BP Pipelines (Alaska), ARCO Transportation Alaska, Inc., Exxon Pipeline Company, Mobil Alaska Pipeline Company, Amerada Hess Pipeline Corporation, Phillips Alaska Pipeline Corporation and Unocal Pipeline.

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