Alaska oil field shut down

[Cookiely]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/06/oilfie ... index.html
Another excuse to raise prices.

[Lindaloo]

Yep, good ole' BP. I am sure the barrels of oil will increase shortly.

[CajunMama]

From what i got from the article they had to shut it down because of corrosion in the pipeline. As House Speaker John Harris said ""This state cannot afford to have another Exxon Valdez". I don't see repairing the pipeline as a means for BP to raise prices.

[Lindaloo]

It was stated that this shut down will decrease production to 400,000 barrels of oil a day. I see this as an increase on the price of oil by at least 10.00 a barrel.

[angelwing]

I see it as $70 filling my tank as opposed to $45 right now

[coriolis]

This should be considered routine maintenance and only a slight blip. But things being the way they are, it will get blown up into a crisis.

[Stephanie]

Yep, good ole' BP. I am sure the barrels of oil will increase shortly.

Has anyone of these oil companies ever heard of "preventive maintenance"??

I'm sure they have but HEAVEN FORBID they should fork out some $$$ ahead of time. They better hurry up. Snow will be falling in September...

[Lindaloo]

Oh I agree 100% Steph! That is what has me and my co-workers so upset! We have ALOT of trucks that run on diesel fuel. When you are in the transportation business any type of increase in fuel, hurts. Not only hurts us, but we have to pass the expense on to our customers. The end result will be less business for us. We have to pay hefty fuel taxes in every state we run in. If the trucks are sitting here and not in use, then we still have to pay the taxes. It is getting harder and harder for a business to continue operating. Can't get anyone to help either, if you know what I mean.

[TexasStooge]

That's the last thing I wanna see, raising gas prices.

[CajunMama]

Yep, good ole' BP. I am sure the barrels of oil will increase shortly.

Has anyone of these oil companies ever heard of "preventive maintenance"??

I'm sure they have but HEAVEN FORBID they should fork out some $$$ ahead of time. They better hurry up. Snow will be falling in September...

From what I got from the article this is like preventive maintenance. The data came from an internal monitor that exceeded or was getting close to exceeding the corrosion limit therefore they have to shut down the pipeline to do the repairs.

None of us want to see rising gas prices but this is better than the alternative.

[Lindaloo]

It may be preventative for an oil spill, but not a preventative for Americans pocketbooks. How convenient.

[gtalum]

We run through 20 million barrels a day. I don't foresee a temporary and predictable reduction of 400k (~2%) per day making for a big price change.

[sunny]

I don't know - it sounds serious enough to me.

In a sudden blow to the United States' oil supply, half the production on Alaska's North Slope was being shut down after BP Exploration Alaska, Inc. discovered severe corrosion in a Prudhoe Bay oil transit line.

400,000-barrel per day reduction in output would have a major impact on oil prices

Sounds like rising prices to me.....

[Lindaloo]

That is what the company says the reduction will be gtalum.

[george_r_1961]

Let the pipes burst and oil will be a hell of a lot higher than $70 a barrel. The only thing that scares me..and someone correct me if im wrong here, is that we stopped making deposits to the strategic reserve a few months ago. If thats true and the repairs take a long time there will be some serious shortages.

[gtalum]

That's because the SPR is full at ~750 million barrels.

[Lindaloo]

Let the pipes burst and oil will be a hell of a lot higher than $70 a barrel. The only thing that scares me..and someone correct me if im wrong here, is that we stopped making deposits to the strategic reserve a few months ago. If thats true and the repairs take a long time there will be some serious shortages.

They have already had a major oil spill plus a minimal oil spill recently. Not as much as the Valdez but we did not see an increase at the pumps that I can recall.

[sunny]

Prices have already begun to rise.

[Lindaloo]

Imagine that!

[BreinLa]

Guys this sort of thing happens every week in the oil and gas business, their are thousands of miles of pipeline with gas flowing just in the Gulf of Mexico. Preventative maintence for corrosive pipeline is done all the time and we do not see an increase in gas prices at those times. We all know that the price of gas was expected to go up even higher before the end of this year. Well its happening and will continue to happen. Hopefully not to much higher!!!!!!