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5.3.6.wavLike the earlier fur trade and Gold Rush, Alaska's most recent economic boom has been driven by exploiting a valuable natural resource- oil. The first commercial oil wells started in 1957 on the Kenai Peninsula. By 1966, the oil industry was the most important economic activity in the state. But the oil economy was just getting started. In 1967, the largest oil field in North America was discovered at Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Coast. To get this oil to market, the Alaska Pipeline needed to be built. This $7.7 billion project employed 28,000 people and is the largest construction project in the state's history.
Trans-Alaska Pipeline
The impact of oil development in Alaska has been monumental. Vast amounts of money began to flow into the state with the construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline in 1974 and production in the oil field in 1977. In 2022, after 45 years in operation, more than 18.5 billion barrels of oil were pumped from the North Slope through the pipeline. Taxes from oil activity funded up to 90 percent of the state government’s revenues over this time and have accounted for $274 billion in total income to the State of Alaska. In 2022, the oil industry created 70,000 jobs throughout the state.
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