Free Republic

Authorities say an oil spill near Prudhoe Bay contaminated about 8,400 square feet of snow-covered tundra. Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation spokeswoman Weld Royal said oil cleanup crews rushed to the scene about 1 1/2 miles from a production center on the North Slope around 3 a.m. Sunday. She told The Associated Press that it still isn't clear how much spilled or what caused it, but the petroleum did not reach the bay. The spill occurred around an 18-inch pipeline that carried a mixture of crude oil, produced water, and natural gas, but the line was not in operation at...

It has been 31 years since the Prudhoe Bay oil field began producing on the North Slope, and though the crude oil flowing from the big field today is less than a third of what it was during the peak years, Prudhoe is still the linchpin of North Slope production: Today it provides more than half the oil moving down the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Most of the new oil will have to come from the Prudhoe field and a second large field, Kuparuk, which is also showing its age. New oil could be found through exploration as well, but not...

NEW YORK, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Oil major BP Plc believes the downstream segment of the shut down oil transit pipeline on the eastern side of the Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska is in good enough condition to be restarted, a BP spokesman said on Friday. Scans of the segment of the oil transit line that connects Flow Station 1 (FS-1) on the eastern side of the field to the Trans Alaska pipeline (TAPS) have not turned up any serious problems and BP now thinks the pipeline can be restarted safely, said BP Alaska spokesman Daren Beaudo. BP shut down...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Production at the nation's largest oil field has been reduced again. According to a spokesman for oil giant BP, this time the problem is a compressor. Production at Prudhoe Bay was running at about half its normal rate, after pipeline corrosion led to a small oil spill this month. That prompted the shutdown of the eastern half of the oil field, where BP Alaska is now working to replace 16 miles of corroded pipe. BP was able to produce 200,000 barrels a day from the western half of the field, but has now dropped that by 90,000...

FORT BELVOIR, Va., Aug. 18, 2006 – There’s plenty of fuel available to fill the tanks of U.S. military vehicles and aircraft despite widely reported accounts of a commercial oil pipeline rupture in Alaska, a senior Defense Department logistician said here yesterday. “We’re in good shape all the time. We have significant fuel reserves. If fuel became locally unavailable, … we could move fuel from elsewhere in the United States to cover DoD’s requirements,” John S. Bartenhagen Jr., Defense Energy Support Center deputy director for operations, said. The center buys fuel for defense department needs. It is a component...

Excerpt - BP said Friday it would keep one side of the nation's largest oil field open as it replaces 16 miles of pipes. The decision will allow BP to keep funneling up to 200,000 barrels of oil and natural gas from Prudhoe Bay. BP, which operates the oil field, had previously said it would have to completely shut down the oil field after discovering leaks and severe corrosion on the eastern side of the pipeline nearly a week ago. ~ snip ~