Emily Cokl

Math 1210

Pipeline Project

BLM Land

4 miles -BLM

12 miles
BLM

Private Ground

36 miles BLM Land

Refinery

In this project we were able to find what the minimum cost of building a pipeline from a drilling
site to a refinery was. First I found the cost of running the pipeline strictly on BLM land going east 4
miles, south 12 miles, and west 36 miles. This totaled 52 miles which I multiplied by $500,000 because
that is the cost per mile to run a pipeline across BLM ground. This gave me the answer of $26,000,000.
Next I found the cost of running the pipeline on BLM ground going east through the mountain 32 miles
and then south to the refinery 12 miles. This totaled 44 miles which I multiplied by $500,000 and then
added $2,000,000 for the flat fee of drilling through the mountain, $320,000 for the cost of conducting
an environmental impact study, and $120,000 multiplied by 4 months for the cost of delaying the
project by four months to conduct the environmental impact study. The total on this scenario came to
$24,800,000.
Then I found the cost of running the pipeline across private ground using the shortest distance from the
well to the refinery. This distance, after using the Pythagorean Theorem, came out to be about 34.176

miles. I multiplied this by $850,000 because that is the cost per mile for running the pipeline on private
ground plus the cost per mile for laying the pipe. This scenario totaled about $29,049,600. After this I
found the cost of running the pipeline directly south across private ground 12 miles and then east 32
miles to the refinery. I multiplied the 12 miles by $850,000 for the cost of running on private ground and
I added this to the 32 miles multiplied by $500,000 for the cost of running on BLM ground. This gave me
a total of $26,200,000.
Next I found the cost function for running a pipeline that crosses private ground and enters BLM land
along the southern border of the private ground and then runs the rest of the way east to the refinery. I
found the cost function by first using the Pythagorean Theorem to find the distance that the pipeline
would have to go on private ground. I came up with 144+x2as this distance. I then found that the
distance the pipeline would have to run on BLM land would be 32-x. Then I multiplied the distance run
on BLM land by $500,000 and the distance run on private ground by $850,000. I added these two values
together and it gave me the equation
C(x)=500,000(32-x)+850,000((144+x))
This cost function was then used to determine the optimal place to run the pipeline to minimize costs.
To do this I first found the derivative of the cost function. Then I set the derivative equal to zero and
solved for x which came out to be about 8.7287 miles. I plugged this value into the cost equation and
solved for the cost which came out to be about $24,248,630. This shows that running the pipeline in this
direction is the optimal place and minimizes the cost.