BP Shuts 100,000 Barrels of Oil from Alaska
Does this story remind anyone else of the California Enron scandal when power plants were shut down for routine maintenance to raise energy prices?Â
BP Shuts 100,000 Barrels of Output in Prudhoe Bay for a ‘Few Days’ Due to Water Pipeline Leak
BP said Tuesday it will shut down 100,000 barrels, or one quarter, of its Alaskan oil production for a “few days” after discovering a water pipeline leak.
Analysts said the temporary loss of output at Prudhoe Bay should not have a dramatic impact on world oil markets, but with supplies already tight and crude futures trading near $66 a barrel, any snag in the industry tends to make energy traders jittery.
Light sweet crude for June delivery fell 32 cents to $65.95 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
London-based BP said the leak was discovered Monday in a 12-inch pipe that collects water separated from the oil and gas it produces.
“We’re putting together inspection and repair plans to return the facility to normal operations,” BP spokesman Neil Chapman in Houston said.
Alaron Trading Corp. analyst Phil Flynn downplayed the significance of the event for U.S. energy consumers.
“It’s not that (this lost production) can’t be made up elsewhere in the world,” he said, “but we would like to get production here rather than elsewhere.”
U.S. refiners convert more than 15 million barrels a day of crude oil into gasoline, diesel and other liquid fuels — and about two-thirds of that oil comes from abroad. The country imports an additional 2.6.