A friend asked me to print out verifiable information about what can happen to the oil in pipelines if electricity or imbedded chips affect them. I remember reading about oil turning to sludge, but don't know where I read it or how to find it. Can anyone help?

-- Sylvia (in Miss'ippi) (bluebirdms@aol.com), January 06, 1999

Answers

Oil pipelines include pumping stations and embedded systems to monitor and control the flow. The reference to oil turning to sludge was probably on the Gary North site several months ago referring to the Alaska pipeline. The comment was that if the embedded systems failed in January 2000 and the pumps stopped, the oil would get cold and turn to sludge and even if the pumps were fixed in a few days, it would be impossible to restore the flow until the summer thaw. This source would be out of action for several months. Other sources have said that there are extensive embedded systems in oil wells, pipelines, refineries and the corner gas station. Most of these systems are difficult or impossible to test without shutting down the system being tested. The probabilities of interruptions of fuel supply are significant as all of these systems must work.

-- steve (sfennel@nettally.com), January 06, 1999.

Here's a bit of info on one company's pipelines:

"Colonial Pipeline operates the world's largest volume refined petroleum products pipeline. The company's 73 mainline pumping stations use an array of electric motors to keep the petroleum flowing in the twin pipeline system totaling 5,200 miles running from Houston, Texas to New York harbor. With electric power representing about 40 percent of Colonial's total operating costs, the company has very clear incentives to efficiently manage its pumping operations." "Making these operational decisions was very difficult," says Colonial Pipeline Power Optimization Coordinator Mike Richeson. "We had to contend not only with the fact that our system is served by 26 utility companies - ... "

I found this on the web site of a company that was advertising its products/services to enable Colonial to monitor and calculate its own power usage and billing (Enerlink).

73 pumping stations, 26 utilities; place your bets.

Jerry B

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), January 07, 1999.