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Largest North American Oil Field Goes Offline

By Eric McErlain
From the AP:
In a sudden blow to the nation's oil supply, half the production on Alaska's North Slope was being shut down Sunday after BP Exploration Alaska, Inc. discovered severe corrosion in a Prudhoe Bay oil transit line.

BP officials said they didn't know how long the Prudhoe Bay field would be off line. "I don't even know how long it's going to take to shut it down," said Tom Williams, BP's senior tax and royalty counsel.

Once the field is shut down, in a process expected to take days, BP said oil production will be reduced by 400,000 barrels a day. That's close to 8 percent of U.S. oil production as of May 2006 or about 2.6 percent of U.S. supply including imports, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Puts the whole ANWR question in perspective, doesn't it?

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Comments

David Bradish said…
$4 gasoline here we come!
August 7, 2006 at 10:14 AM
Matthew66 said…
$4 per gallon equals $1.06 per liter. In Sydney the average price yesterday was USD 1.127 per liter, and in the UK USD 1.953 per liter. Whilst I empathize with the desire for low gasoline prices, we do have a pretty good deal when compared to other developed countries with similar domestic oil resources. (To check rates google petrol price Sydney or London.)
August 10, 2006 at 2:09 PM
David Bradish said…
You're right. We have it great here.

I can't remember where I saw it but UK pays more than twice as much for gasoline than us. The main reason I recall was due to taxes though.
August 10, 2006 at 2:59 PM
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