BP's Neglect of North Slope Pipeline Led to Disaster (Jason Leopold) [View All]

[kpete]

kpete: I included the author's name in the title - so if you wished to ignore - you need not have opened this post - You all know, I post just about everything I can find that interests me, you decide whether to chew it or spit it out.

BP's Neglect of North Slope Pipeline Led to Disaster
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Wednesday 09 August 2006

BP announced Sunday that it intends to shut down the Prudhoe Bay oilfield in Alaska's North Slope later this week because of a severely corroded portion of pipeline and an ensuing oil spill, the latest in a series of mishaps that have plagued the petroleum giant's drilling operations in the region.

The Prudhoe Bay field accounts for 8 percent - or 400,000 barrels per day - of the country's domestic crude supply. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Monday it would increase output to offset the shortfall. Production at Prudhoe Bay began in 1977, and during its peak in the 1980s the field produced more than 1 million barrels of oil per day.

Bob Malone, chairman and president of BP America Inc., said at a press conference Monday that he could not predict when drilling operations would resume.

Republican lawmakers have begun using Sunday's pipeline problems for their own political gain - mainly by renewing calls for the passage of legislation that would allow drilling in the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

more at:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080906J.shtml