pipeline

Any extended line of conduits for carrying water, oil, gas, or other material over long distances. Pipelines are widely used in water-supply and oil- and gas-distribution schemes. The USA has 2.4 million km/1.5 million mi of pipeline (including over 300,000 km/200,000 mi of oil pipeline). One of the longest is the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline in Alaska.

The first gas pipeline between North Africa and Europe opened in 1996, bringing gas from Algeria to Spain and eventually to France and Portugal. Financed largely by the European Union, it helps to diversify the supply of gas throughout Europe and bring transport costs down. The 1,400 km/875 mi pipeline brings gas from Algeria via Morocco and the Strait of Gibraltar to the city of Cordoba in southern Spain, where it is channelled into Spain's natural-gas network. It supplies more than half of Spain's gas needs. Construction of the pipeline took almost five years, at a cost of $2.3 billion. It was the most complicated project of its kind in the world, since 45 km/30 mi of the pipe had to be laid on the geologically complex floor of the Strait of Gibraltar, the site of treacherously strong currents.