Pipeline Project

The U.S. Interior Secretary recently approved drilling of natural gas wells near Vernal, Utah. Your company has begun drilling and established a high-producing well on BLM ground. They now need to build a pipeline to get the natural gas to their refinery. While running the line directly to the refinery will be the least amount of pipe and shortest distance, it would require running the line across private ground and paying a right-of-way fee. There is a mountain directly east of the well that must be drilled through in order to run the pipeline due east. Your company can build the pipeline around the private ground by going 1 mile directly west and then 5 miles south and finally 21 miles east to the refinery (see figure below). Cost for materials, labor and fees to run the pipeline across BLM ground is $300,000 per mile. For any pipeline run across private ground, your company incurs an additional $200,000 per mile cost for right-of-way fees. Cost of drilling through the existing mountain would be $500,000 on top of the normal costs of the material, labor and fees for the pipeline itself. Also the BLM will require an environmental impact study before allowing you to drill through the mountain. Cost for the study is estimated to be $100,000 and will delay the project by 3 months costing the company another $50,000 per month. Your company has asked you to do the following:

Private Ground
a) Determine the cost of running the pipeline strictly on BLM ground with two different scenarios: 1. heading east through the mountain and then south to the refinery 2. running west, south and then east to the refinery. b) Determine the cost of running the pipeline the shortest distance (straight line joining well to refinery across the private ground). c) Determine the cost function for this pipeline for the configuration involving running from the well across the private ground at some angle and intersecting the BLM ground to the south and then running east to the refinery. Use this function to determine the optimal place to run the pipeline to minimize cost. Clearly show all work including sketching the placement of the optimal pipeline. Make it very clear how you use your knowledge of calculus to determine the optimal placement of the pipeline. Draw a graph of this cost function and label the point of minimum cost.

From this information, we gather our costs of: BLM ground per mile - $300,000.00 Private ground per mile( in addition to BLM cost) - $ 200,000.00 Drilling - $ 500,000.00 Impact Study - $ 100,000.00 Delay per month - $ 50,000.00

For running the pipeline within BLM ground only, we have: $300,000 * 27 miles = $8,100,000.00 total For running the pipeline through the mountain and continuing on BLM ground: ($300,000 * 25 miles) + $500,000 + $100,000 + ($50,000 * 3 months) = $8,250,000.00 total

For running straight through private grounds: We first find the distance by calculating the hypotenuse of the formed triangle. 52 + 202 = P2 P = 20.62 miles

We use this in our cost calculation. ($300,000 * 20.62 miles) + ($200,000 + 20.62 miles) = $10,310,000.00 total

Finally, we calculate the cost of running for some distance over private ground, and then over BLM ground to find the most cost-effective route: Our cost function is: C = ($500,000 * x) + ($300,000 *20 y) Finding x and y as a function of angle a, we use trigonometric identities: Cos(a) = 5/x, x = 5/cos(a) Tan(a) = y/5, y = 5*tan(a) Substituting these into our cost function, we have: C(a) = ($500,000*(5/cos(a)) + ($300,000*(20 5*tan(a)) Our minimum value of a in radians is found by: amin = sin-1(5/20) = 0.253 Our maximum value of a in radians is found by: amax = tan-1(20/5) = 1.326 Plugging these into our cost function: C(amin) = ($500,000*(5/cos(0.253)) + ($300,000*(20 5*tan(0.253)) = $8,194,392.24 C(amax) = ($500,000*(5/cos(1.326)) + ($300,000*(20 5*tan(1.326)) = $10,310,634.67

Finding the optimum value: We know that a must be in the interval: 0.253 < a < 1.326 Taking the derivative of : C(a) = ($500,000*(5/cos(a)) + ($300,000*(20 5*tan(a)) C(a) = (2500000*sec(a)*tan(a)) (1500000*sec2(a)) And setting it to 0, we find: 2500000(sec(a)tan(a)) - 1500000(sec2(a)) = 0 500000sec(a)(5tan(a) - 3(sec(a))) = 0 5(tan(a)) - 3(sec(a)) = 0 5(sin(a)/cos(a)) - 3/cos(a) = 0 5sin(a) - 3 = 0 5sin(a) = 3 sin(a) = 3/5 a = sin-1(3/5) a = 0.6435 Using this in our cost function give us: C(a) = ($500,000*(5/cos(0.6435)) + ($300,000*(20 5*tan(0.6435)) = $8,000,000.00 *This is our most cost effective path from the well to the refinery* factor 500000sec(a) divide by 500000sec(a) substitute identities multiply by cos(a) add 3 divide by 5 inverse sin 0.6435

Reflection: This project shows a real world example of how calculus can be useful. Taking the derivative of a function can show us the maximum and minimum values in that function. This leads to relatively easy calculations of efficiency, minimizing costs, time, or work while maximizing profit, yield, and effectiveness. I can easily see how mastery of calculus can help me decide the most effective way to build an object, maximize space, generate the most profit, or keep costs as low as possible for any given function I can come up with.