Post #263,983
8/6/06 10:17:50 PM
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BP shuts down Prudhoe Bay production to fix corrosion.
[link|http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=alvPpWP2.oew&refer=worldwide_news|Bloomberg]: Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc said it's shutting the Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska, accounting for 8 percent of U.S. output, because of corrosion in a pipeline.
The shutdown of about 400,000 barrels a day at the largest U.S. field will take days to complete and the company doesn't know when production will resume, field operator BP Exploration Alaska Inc. said in a statement through PRNewswire. The pipeline was shut down at 6:30 a.m. Alaskan time Sunday, it said. Oil prices rose as much as 0.3 percent.
The world's second-largest publicly traded oil company is under a U.S. grand jury investigation over an oil spill in Alaska. About 6,400 barrels of oil leaked from a Prudhoe Bay pipeline in March, almost a year after an explosion at a Texas refinery killed 15 workers and led to the biggest fine by U.S. refinery safety regulators.
The discovery of the corrosion and a leak of four to five barrels "have called into question the condition of the oil transit lines at Prudhoe Bay," Bob Malone, BP America President, said in the statement. "We will not resume operation of the field until we and government regulators are satisfied that they can be operated safely and pose no threat to the environment."
[...] :-( I assume there will be a lot of pressure to get this fixed ASAP. Cheers, Scott. (Who is glad he filled up with diesel today...)
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Post #264,125
8/7/06 5:20:53 PM
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And prices are already going up
I can view a station out my office window. I pass by it every morning. Without getting a tanker truck delivery today, I can see that their price for regular unleaded right now is 4 cents higher than this morning.
lincoln
"Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Never apply a Star Trek solution to a Babylon 5 problem.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the United States.
[link|mailto:bconnors@ev1.net|contact me]
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Post #264,128
8/7/06 5:33:07 PM
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and we have a 5 year high in oil inventories price still up
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 50 years. meep
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Post #264,135
8/7/06 6:27:39 PM
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whats very interesting is that this happened just 2 days
after the Alaskan Legislure raised their taxes, substantially. With the oil pipeline down 0 revenues to the state by their largest taxpayer.
thanx.
bill
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 50 years. meep
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Post #264,155
8/8/06 12:02:26 AM
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Heard on TV News tonight
BP has not checked pipeline for corrosion for the past 7 years. Not mandated to do so, so didn't. Some politico stated "we expected them to perform due maintenance."
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. (Herm Albright)
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Post #264,163
8/8/06 8:59:01 AM
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completely false statement
they were testing regularly for corrosion using ultrasound, it was not using the flying pig (camera inside the pipe) they thought ultrasound was sufficient, it wasnt.
the enviro whackjobs see a payday here so be careful what you read.
thanx,
bill
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 50 years. meep
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Post #264,166
8/8/06 9:04:09 AM
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what actually happened
[link|http://www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/prudhoe/story/8054991p-7948041c.html|http://www.adn.com/m...91p-7948041c.html] He said the transit lines weren't considered high risks for corrosion-related leaks because they carry only oil that's had corrosive water removed, leaving the oil ready for shipment to market. The water is removed in processing plants that are scattered across the oil field and are linked by the transit lines.
BP uses ultrasonic testing to find weak spots in the pipelines. BP managers thought this testing was good enough to find leaks, but Hedges conceded Monday that those tests, performed at random points along the pipelines, were inadequate.
"My suggestion now is we just didn't do it in the right spots," he said. they were spending 73 million dollars a year on maintenance, thats not ignoring the problem. thanx, bill Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 50 years. meep
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