Posted on 08/07/2006 9:45:50 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - 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, 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.
This undated file photo from the US Department of Energy Internet site shows the Bryan Mound storage facility in Brazoria County, Texas, one of four Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) sites in the US. The US government has said that it would take a "serious look" at requests from refiners to tap the nation's emergency oil stockpile after BP said it was shutting down a critical Alaskan pipeline.(AFP/US Dept of Energy/File)
Releasing Crude Oil From the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
http://www.fe.doe.gov/programs/reserves/spr/spr-drawdown.html
From what I understand most of the oil produced in Prudhoe Bay goes to Japan.
It should not take them that long to repair it. It took about three weeks to repair Texaco's line after Katrina.
Plus, I thought they had an N+1 redundancy.
Something seems strange that British Petroleum is in charge of one of our major strategic oil fields and that they can just shut down production right at the time that it will hurt us the most, and that the state department cant do something about it. Who owns British Petroleum? The muzzies?
BP used to be the Anglo-Iranian Oil company. I think they are owned by Shell now.
>>>Who owns British Petroleum
BP is a publicly traded company based in London. Millions of people own it either directly or through mutual funds.
Seems like a good time to start on ANWR.
No it doesn't.
I had read somewhere that most of it goes to Kalifornia....
It does not. The ban against exporting Alaskan North Slope was lifted in 1996 yet 100% of Alaskan North Slope oil is kept in America. This has been the case for all but 4 years of the nearly 3 decades of Alaskan oil production. Between 1996-1999 5.5% of North Slope oil was exported to Asian countries. These exports were overwhelmingly supported by the US Congress and by the Clinton Administration to offset an oil glut in California at the time. In June 2000 Alaskan North Slope oil again ceased to be exported, and 100% of Alaskan North Slope production has stayed in America.
You can look at the export history from this area since the ban was lifted.
BP bought Amoco Oil some years ago and got the pipeline with it.
I would REALLY like the name of the tour bus company. As an Alaskan, I want to see the promotion of these lies STOPPED!!!
Let's get a response from EIA before we run off our mouths.
I gave you a link to the EIA website of several years of data. Why don't you read the link before you post your claim again.
I read the link and I emailed them. Enough already.
As an Alaskan, I want to see the promotion of these lies STOPPED!!!
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