【History of Haichuan Pipelines】The world’s first high-altitude oil pipeline: the Ge-La Oil Pipeline
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The Golmud-Lhasa oil pipeline, the world’s highest fixed pipeline for transporting refined oil, is also known as the GLA pipeline. It is the highest such pipeline in the world today. Approved by Premier Zhou Enlai in 1972, its construction was organized by the military; it was largely completed in October 1977. With a total length of 1,080 kilometers, it starts in Golmud City in Qinghai Province and extends to Lhasa, the capital of our region. The Gala pipeline is laid along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, crossing 108 rivers including the Chumar River and the Tuotuo River, and ascending over more than a dozen major mountains such as the Kunlun Mountains and the Tanggula Mountains. Over 900 kilometers of the pipeline run in harsh cold regions at altitudes above 4,000 meters (with the highest point at 5,231 meters), while more than 560 kilometers of it are situated in permafrost areas.
At that time, the large amount of fuel oil required in Tibet each year had to be transported there by cars over long distances; the fuel consumed by the cars themselves during these trips accounted for around 30% of the total amount. Completing the Gra oil pipeline can fundamentally solve the problems of difficult and costly fuel oil transportation. The construction of the Gala oil pipeline is a great project aimed at addressing Tibet’s fuel shortage, reducing the need for long-distance transportation, and accelerating the economic development of Tibet. At the start of construction, the project was expected to take 4 years to complete, with an investment of 1 billion yuan; 10,000 PLA soldiers and officers as well as local engineering technicians were involved in the work. From 1972 to 1976, after four years of hard work in difficult conditions, this pipeline – the highest and longest of its kind in the world, capable of transporting various types of oil – was finally built, creating a miracle on earth. The Gra oil pipeline was put into operation in 1977.
Building this oil pipeline was not easy; it is of commemorative value.