By:

Christian Kasteler

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-ofway 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 4 miles directly west and then 12 miles south and finally 36 miles east to the refinery. Cost for materials, labor and fees to run the pipeline across BLM ground is $500,000. Cost of drilling through the existing mountain would be a one-time cost of $2,000,000 on top of the normal costs of 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 $320,000 and will delay the project by 4 months costing the company another $120,000 per month. For any pipeline run across private ground, your company incurs an additional $350,000 per mile cost for right-of-way fees.

Your company has asked you to do the following: A. Determine the cost of running the pipeline strictly on BLM ground with two different cases: a. One running west, south and then east to the refinery.

There is a total of 52 miles, each mile costing the company $500,000. Going this route the company would pay $26,000,000 in materials, labor and fees.

b. One heading east through the mountain and then south to the refinery.

There is a total of 44 miles, each mile costing the company $500,000. This option also includes a one-time cost of $2,000,000, being set back 4 months, which costs an extra $120,000/month for operation charges, and paying for an environmental study costing $320,000. Going this route the company would pay $24,800,000.

B. Determine the cost of running the pipeline: a. The shortest distance from well to refinery across the private ground.

There is approximately a total of 34.18 miles across private ground costing the company $500,000 per mile, plus $350,000 per mile for right-of-way fees. Going this route the company would pay approximately $29,049,612.73.

b. The shortest path across the private ground (directly south), then straight to the refinery (directly east).

There is a total of 12 miles across private ground, costing $850,000/mile, with an additional 32 miles across BLM ground, costing $500,000/mile. Going this route the company would pay $26,200,000.

C. Determine the optimal place to run the pipeline to minimize cost. Clearly show all work including drawing the pipeline. Make it very clear how you use your knowledge of calculus to determine the optimal placement of the pipeline.

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Solve for ( )

Solve for

Solve for

D. Include a sketch of the cost function, ( ), for this pipeline for any configuration involving crossing some private ground as well as some BLM ground. Make sure to scale your axes appropriately and to label the minimum point. ( ) ( )

E. Reflect on the things you have learned in your calculus class and how they may apply to the real world. Do you see calculus as a useful tool? What kinds of things have you learned that can be useful in your areas of interest? Please be specific and give some examples to back up your statements.

For me calculus has been an eye opening experience on how it can make other math learned previously easier to understand. Being able to see and understand how sketched graphs are most accurately made. I can see calculus being necessary for most engineering jobs with their construction and planning of different projects and blueprints. Economists, and statistic jobs use formulas to give them the expected outcome and cut costs where possible. My eventual goal is to go into pharmacy to become a pharmacist, Calculus in this field of work is used mainly in research, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (the study of drug effects on the body). An example is finding the area under the curve of a pill as x approaches 0. This and other formulas can be used to better understand drug interactions and dosing. Whereas I may not be going into the clinical part of pharmacy it will be important to be familiar with using these equations to ensure safe results for people.