Posted on 08/09/2006 9:06:20 AM PDT by thackney
BP, officials seek ways to keep some Prudhoe oil flowing
BP continued deactivating the mammoth Prudhoe Bay oil field on Tuesday, but signals began to emerge that the shutdown might be shorter and less extensive than first feared.
A BP spokesman, Daren Beaudo, said company managers along with state and federal regulators were studying options to possibly keep the western half of the field running.
By late Tuesday afternoon, workers had shut down the eastern half of the field, where severe corrosion was found inside a major pipeline that sprang a leak over the weekend. That brought Prudhoe's production down to about 200,000 barrels per day, half its normal output.
A top federal pipeline regulator, meanwhile, questioned why BP announced Sunday its intent to shut down the entire field because of corrosion fears. And U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman suggested the western half of the field might not have to be idled, as pipeline corrosion worries might not be as acute in that section of the field.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she had spoken with BP executives and got the same impression -- that an enormous and extended oil shortage might be averted.
"I do believe there is hope that they will not have to fully shut down the entire Prudhoe Bay," Murkowski said.
That would be good news for the state, for refinery operators in Alaska and along the West Coast, and for gasoline consumers who rely on Prudhoe's formidable output, which normally accounts for almost half of the North Slope's production and about 2.6 percent of the nation's total supply including imports.
BP, which owns about 26 percent of Prudhoe Bay and operates it on behalf of itself and partners Exxon Mobil and Conoco Phillips, rattled commodities markets and alarmed the country when it announced Sunday...
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
How is the TransAlaska Pipeline itself doing? Good for another 30 years with preventive maintenance and intermittent repairs?
I'm getting tired of this crap.
The reaction to this leak was overblown and way too PC because of the Enviro-NAZI's...
There is no point in shutting the entire operation down, when repairs will commence on one section at a time.
It amazes me how panic stricken these folks at BP were?
We need to eliminate a few lawyers and re-boot reality.
Waiting for gas prices to fall. . . . . . . still waiting. . . . . .
You ever notice that oil shipped is measured in barrels but oil spilled is measured in gallons?
"THE SPICE MUST FLOW!"....................
Does anyone know at what percentage of capacity the existing pipeline is operating?
If we open up Anwar, do we need a second pipeline?
.....and very suspicious that oil sold in Wal-Mart is sold in QUARTS!.............
My guess is that the partners, CONOCO and EXXON, didn't like BP's sudden announcement of the shut down, especially since the other companies were prepared to replace the shortfall with foreign supplies, the was BP was.
It is very suspicious that BP just completed preparations at their Cherry Point refinery to bring in foreign supplies and then announces the shut down.
Me TOO!How do you"suddenly"discover corrosion that takes YEARS to develop???Isn't a"scheduled maintenance"program in place???
Probably has something to do with performance bonuses, as per many other debacles in the business.
The reaction was far too extreme, and I think that cooler heads are prevailing now.
Oil companies hate it when oil spills public, and I think the lawyers spoke before operations reacted and studied the problem.
The Strategic Reconfiguration Project is ongoing, replacing pump stations with new electric drive units, modulare design to easily expand back above 1,000,000 BPD if we get enough oil from ANWR, NPRA or Offshore.
Strategic Reconfiguration Project Overview
The majors have been tossing around 50 years for continued oil production on the North Slope. We have several enhanced oil recovery projects started to squeeze higher percent recoverables from the older fields than was traditionally expected. Also more shallow fields are becoming econommical to produce, that cold oil that takes extra work to get out of the ground. West Sak and Schrader Bluff have wells flowing now and Ugnu is planned for production next year. Those fields are well defined since they have been drilling through them for years to get to the warmer deeper oil.
I wish I knew more about how Shell's exploration is going. They bought 87 leases offshore last year in the Beaufort Sea. This year they brought up two drill ships. Lots of potential.
Dune
The Movie, yes, but I don't think that quote is in any of the books.........
The cash price (immediate) for gasoline has fallen each day for the past 4 business days. Perhaps you should ask your local retailer.
HUY0 - GASOLINE UNLEADED Cash (NYMEX)
The September Spot Market for Gasoline fell yesterday and fell since opening this morning. It is also cheaper than Friday's close before any of this was announced.
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