Page 7 Advertisement 1

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 557, 24 February 1950, Page 7

Te SHELL' NEWS COLUMN An interesting development in Cen- tral U.SA where crude oil produc- tion has declined, while demand for refined products has increased, was the construction of a 513 mile, 22 inch pipeline from Jal, New Mexico across Texas to Cushing; Oklahoma At Cushing it connects with another which extends 435 miles to Illinois, a total distance of nearly i0oo miles; Passing through the rough and desol- ate country of Texas, the project offers formidable problems: Huge 18-wheel trailer-trucks hauled sec- tions of the pipe across the rough roads of West Texas, while on some sections, where the weight 6f the pipe prevented even these giant trucks from climbing steep hills, bulldozers were stationed to haul them UP. huge ditching machine was employ- ed carving 2 ditch 3 ft. wide and 4 ft deep: The pipe-sections had to be double-welded before being buried tests proved that the welded joints were stronger than the pipe itself. 2 cranes were used in the final low ering operation, which included wrapping the pipe in a protective coating of coal tar enamel; 'fibre glass and asbestos An ingenious device did all three jobs in one operation. This was followed by 4 detector locating faults in the insulation and casting: The project was thus completed in the minimum of time Throughput has now reached 165,000 barrels yearly, relieving the shortage in mid-Continent refineries. An in- teresting feature is thac the complete Project was entrusted to the Shell Pipeline Corporation, although own- ership of the pipe line was shared with other companies. E20.9 Another in the Series THE SHELL COMPANY OF NZ: LTD: (Incorporated in England)