When would you have shut dow our largest oilfield to replace the pipeline? Just curious as to when the optimun time would have been
Replacement should be an ongoing process. Build a one-mile bypass pipe and replace the main line. When that section is complete, move the whole operation down the line and work on the next mile of pipe.
Doing it that way can't be any more expensive than the amount of money BP claims to be "losing" every day the corroded line is shutdown. It's called common sense and planning.
If any of this BS was truly on the level, every BP employee and manager in charge of maintenance and upkeep would be replaced. This is a dog and pony show to keep pump prices jacked up.
I would suspect this crude goes into, or has the capability to go into storage tanks somewhere along the line...I assume that would have been part of the initial planning stage to compensate for any maintenance operations...
A scheduled repair would be far less costly in downtime compared to shutting down and replacing the entire piping system...