BP: Pipeline Closing May Last for Months

[Omaha Steve]

Full story: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060808/D8JC0KAG1.html

BP: Pipeline Closing May Last for Months
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Aug 7, 11:51 PM (ET)

By MARY PEMBERTON

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - BP said Monday it discovered corrosion so severe that it will have to replace 16 miles of pipeline at the huge Prudhoe Bay oil field - work that could shut down the nation's single biggest source of domestic crude for months and drive gasoline prices even higher.

Oil prices climbed more than $2 a barrel on the news, and gasoline futures rose, too. The West Coast is expected to be squeezed particularly hard, and the government is considering releasing oil from its emergency stockpile to ease the crunch.


A section of pipeline on display at the Prudhoe Bay oil field on Alaska's North Slope Friday, Aug. 4, 2006 shows corrosion on the inside of a pipe. BP Exploration Alaska, Inc. began shutting down the Prudhoe Bay oil field Sunday after the discovery of unexpectedly severe corrosion and a small spill from a Prudhoe Bay oil transit line. (AP Photo/Al Grillo)


BP PLC (BP) said it will have to replace most of the 22 miles of so-called transit pipeline at Prudhoe Bay, which produces about 2.6 percent of the nation's daily supply including imports, or about 400,000 barrels a day.

BP, the world's second-largest oil company, discovered the extent of the corrosion with tests that were ordered by the federal government after a big oil spill last March at Prudhoe Bay, situated above the Arctic Circle, 650 miles north of Anchorage.

[Monkeyman]

1. can you say $4.00 a gal

[neverforget]

2. Don't worry, though, the TeeVee said it would only rise 20 cents!

I live in Oregon and we get 25% of our oil from Alaska but it's only going to rise about a quarter? Where is the oil going to come from to make up the lost 25%? I expect to be paying $4-$5 a gallon soon.

[muryan]

4. Well

OPEC said they would help make up the difference, and theres talk of opening the strategic reserve as well.

[raccoon]

14. Can you say US economy in the crapper? nt

[Divernan]

3. With Big Oil's VAST profits, they easily had the wealth to PREVENT this by

preventive inspection and maintenance, but we read they only "discovered the extent of the corrosion with tests that were ordered by federal government AFTER a big oil spill last March." This is yet another example of how major corporations canibalize themselves and self-destruct when all they focus on is this quarter's bottom line numbers and the value of their stock options, instead of long-term actions for the the financial stability and survival of a company.

And Alaska's Dept. of Conservation & Natural Resources - or whatever Alaska calls that branch of state government - should also have had in place and been enforcing monitoring of the pipeline BEFORE the big oil spill last March.

[951-Riverside]

5. That means $15-20 Billion in profits this quarter for the oil companies

YAY!!!!! :sarcasm:

[Theduckno2]

6. I wonder if those months might end in time for a ...........

November election bounce in the polls. I have gotta think that Bush will be jawboning his oil buddies to get the pipeline back on line. I wasn't surprised to see how fast Bush decided to tap into strategic reserves.

It is nice to know that the Alaskan enviroment was spared the consequences of a major spill(this time).

[Sherman A1]

7. How odd that there isn't a scheduled program of

maintenance and upkeep. I have photo from the 1930's of an airplane that Shell Oil used to photograph pipelines to keep an eye on them. Odd that we have seemed to lose that technology and not improve since then?????

[roguevalley]

8. they nuked the last set of whistleblowers. alaska will lose 6+ million

dollars a day while this is down. The country will be screwed by the fascist oil companies. You have our sympathies. Our gas is 3.05 now. wait until tomorrow.

[customerserviceguy]

11. What makes more sense

To keep the pipeline down for replacement a month every year for the last ten years, or to have one big replacement all at once, that can be accomplished in a longer period of time, but still less than the aggregate of all the annual replacements?

I guess I'm happy that they found this before having a really big spill. And who could ask for better timing, what with the election less than three months away?

[daleo]

16. Regular scheduled maintenance always makes more sense

It is cheaper in the long run, and it prevents a lot of catastrophes. Think of New Orleans.

[customerserviceguy]

18. Yes, but

to "maintain" a pipeline, you have to shut it down, and replace segments that are damaged. That means you have to undo welds that have been in place for years, and redo them with welds that may or may not be structurally sound immediately. All of the work of shutting down, and starting up again takes time, that is best spent sparingly, by stretching out the amount of time between shutdowns.

The New Orleans levee situation is completely different, in that case, you do work on the infrastructure while it is least needed to do its job, the dry season.

[hedgehog]

20. I've heard reports that someone at BP decided to save money

by cutting back or eliminating the anti-corrosion agent that was supposed to be added to the oil to protect the pipeline.

[Bridget Burke]

19. BP doesn't waste money on scheduled maintenance....

Fifteen people died when the BP Texas City refinery blew in March of 2005. Many more were injured & the incident was only one in a long string of "accidents." The lives of its workers & the health of the environment are far less important than record profits.

Who was picked to head the "independent" review board? James Baker III. (The big Houston law firm, Baker & Botts, has worked for BP in the past.) A good clue that the situation stank. (Since I was raised among refineries, I KNOW about bad smells.)

[aquart]

9. Zero maintenance for 14 years, I understand?

Why do I suspect Big Oil sees the Republicans as losing in November and now as the last chance to steal as much as possible?

[alarimer]

12. See they make more money doing it now

than if they had done when oil was $30 a barrell. Fuckers.

[raccoon]

15. Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! nt

[truthisfreedom]

10. this is just a way to smooth over the oil price increases through the

erection.

[CountAllVotes]

13. prices holding steady here still

filled up and topped it off yesterday. I prepared for the worst. I'm already paying $3.41 a gallon! :grr:

:kick:

[Omaha Steve]

17. Remember Republicans want more drilling in ANWR!

See what happens when we loose just one source of oil! A souce not effected by hurricanes etc.... Now will come a new war cry to drill, drill, drill in ANWR in Congress.

Now that tankers must all be double hulled in the near future to prevent leaks, maybe pipe lines should have a self sealing layer around them. They say the 200,000 gallon spill is small. Tell that to the wildlife. And Exxon still hasn't paid a dime for the Valdez spill from March of 89 as of today.

http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/