troung

BP shutting down large Alaska oil field

6 minutes ago

BP Exploration Alaska, Inc. began shutting down the Prudhoe Bay oil field Sunday after discovering unexpectedly severe corrosion and a small spill from a transit pipeline.

Prudhoe Bay represents about half of Alaska's oil production and about 8 percent of U.S. production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Company officials said it would take days to shut down the oil field. Once completed, it's expected to reduce oil field production by 400,000 barrels a day.

"We regret that it is necessary to take this action and we apologize to the nation and the State of Alaska for the adverse impacts it will cause," BP America Chairman and President Bob Malone said in a prepared statement.

Officials learned Friday that data from an internal sensing device found 16 anomalies in 12 locations in an oil transit line on the eastern side of the field. Follow-up inspections found "corrosion-related wall thinning appeared to exceed BP criteria for continued operation," the company said in a release.

That's when workers also found a small spill, estimated to be about 4 to 5 barrels.

BP says the spill has been contained and clean up efforts are under way. State and federal officials have been informed of the decision.

Link:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060807/...field_shutdown

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To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

troung

Energy Dept. ready to tap emergency oil

By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 48 minutes ago

The Energy Department is prepared to provide oil from the government's emergency supplies if a refinery requests it because of the disruption of supplies from Alaska, a department spokesman said Monday.

"We're taking a very serious look at this," said spokesman Craig Stevens, referring to the loss of nearly half of oil shipments from Alaska's North Slope because of a pipeline corrosion problem.

Stevens said the department will be in contact with BP Exploration Alaska Inc. and West Coast refiners later in Monday to assess the situation. "If there is a request for oil we'll certainly take a serious look at that," he said.

Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., often a critic of the administration's energy policy, said: "This is the appropriate and right thing to do. We're glad the White House's reluctance to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to prevent price spikes seems to have dissipated."

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the nation's emergency stockpile of crude oil. It was created after the 1973 oil embargo when Arab countries halted petroleum exports to protest U.S. support for Israel.

The reserve has about 700 million barrels in storage on the Gulf Coast to be used in case of a serious supply disruption. The Energy Department in the past has lent SPR oil to refineries when there were disruptions because of pipeline or other problems.

Most of Alaska's oil goes to refineries on the West Coast. It was unclear how those refineries would be supplied with oil on the Gulf Coast. However any oil put into the market to replace lost Alaska oil would tend to ease prices, market experts say.

Oil prices jumped by more than $1 a barrel Monday following a production shutdown at an Alaskan oil field that accounts for about 8 percent of U.S. production.

BP Exploration Alaska Inc. began shutting down oil production Sunday at Prudhoe Bay due to severe pipeline corrosion.

Once the field is shut down, in a process expected to take days, BP said oil production would be reduced by 400,000 barrels a day. BP officials said they didn't know how long the Prudhoe Bay field would be off line.

The nation's petroleum reserve was created in legislation signed by President Ford in December 1975, which made it U.S. policy to create a reserve capable of holding up to 1 billion barrels of oil as an insurance policy against future supply disruptions.

Oil companies contribute to the supply in lieu of paying cash royalties for oil pumped on federally owned land.



Link:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060807/...NlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Anon

It's a good thing i do well or i'd be selling my Porsche.

LOL...

Yukon

BP has purposely shut down the pipeline and therefor forcing an increase in crude. They will make billions from the shutdown because oil from their other fields will increase in value thus paying for the repairs.

TopHatter

So, according to you, they are doing unneeded repairs as an excuse to shut down the pipeline, thus forcing the price of oil higher, which will make their other oil fields more profitable, thus paying for repairs that didn't need to be done in the first place...

Yeah, I'm smelling a troll here. A "liberal" Roman Catholic.

ArmchairGeneral

Come come, be nice. We mustn't judge too quickly. Or at least it ain't polite to do so.

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"Apocalyptic thought is curiously pleasurable."
-Theodore Dalrymple

TopHatter

I'm guessing you hadn't yet seen his Intro thread when you posted this.

ArmchairGeneral

On the contrary, I was the absolute first person to welcome this admittedly ideosyncratic and aggressive individual to our wonderful community.

TopHatter

Sorry but when I see something like this:
from a self-described "liberal Catholic", my BS meter tends to bury the needle.

ArmchairGeneral

Hey, I never said he wasn't a dumbass. I just said it weren't polite to say so. Until he really pisses you off, of course.

TopHatter

I'm sorry, my time as a mod has made me a little jaded when it comes to this sort of thing.

THL

I have it on very good authority that right now (yes, RIGHT NOW) Lord John Browne HIMSELF is underneath Mad Dog out in the Gulf trying to sabotage the whole operation so that he can jump up the stock and retire early. The bastard!!

Now I must be going, I have to be to the airport so that I can get these Crumpets to Louisiana for a very important top secret individual.

__________________
"To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are."-Sholem Asch

"I always turn to the sports page first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures."-Earl Warren

"I didn't intend for this to take on a political tone. I'm just here for the drugs."-Nancy Reagan, when asked a political question at a "Just Say No" rally

"He no play-a da game, he no make-a da rules."-Earl Butz, on the Pope's attitude toward birth control