BP Says Western Half of Prudhoe Bay Can Keep Producing Oil
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BP Plc will keep pumping the western half of the Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska while it replaces corroded pipe on the eastern half.
The world’s third-biggest oil company by market value will produce 200,000 barrels a day from North America’s largest oil field during repairs, about half of its usual output of 400,000 barrels a day, spokesman Tom Mueller said in a telephone interview from Anchorage yesterday.
The field is currently producing 150,000 barrels a day, Mueller said. That figure will start to increase soon as the company completes scheduled maintenance on the collection network, he said.
The London-based company’s plan to restore half the field’s capacity exceeds the “best-case scenario” of UBS Investment Research analyst Jon Rigby, who estimated in an Aug. 9 note that the company would be unable to exceed 180,000 barrels a day from Prudhoe Bay through 2006.
Prudhoe Bay usually accounts for about 8 percent of U.S. output. The possible closure of the field pushed crude oil as high as $77.45 Aug. 8. Oil climbed 35 cents a barrel to $74.35 yesterday, 13 percent above its level a year earlier.
The new pipeline on the eastern half of Prudhoe Bay will be installed by early 2007, BP said. That confirmed BP America President Robert Malone’s Aug. 10 statement that the repair job could take as long as five months.
The company is still seeking interim ways to bring the eastern section back into production, it said.
BP stock declined 4 pence, or 0.7 percent, to 611 pence in London before the announcement. It has fallen 6.7 percent in the past year.
