Pipeline Shutdown Prompts Concerns in Washington
As had been predicted, the loss of some 400,000 barrels of oil per day (barrels hold about 42 gallons each) as a result of BP`s (British Petroleum) decision to close down the nation`s largest oil field and oil lines in Alaska has now forced the prices of crude oil fluctuate with even more frequency, as Washington considers using dipping into its emergency stockpile to counter the shortfall from the shutdown. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the price of crude oil prices fell 28 cents in Asian electronic trading early Tuesday, a day after the price of sweet crude jumped by more than $2 a barrel.
BP America announced on Monday it would shutdown its transit pipeline at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, which has been leaking due to corrosion. The Prudhoe Bay pipeline accounts for about 2.7 percent of the nation`s total daily oil supply, including imports being taken into account. On Monday, the average U.S. retail price of unleaded gasoline reached $3.036 a gallon, which is near the all-time high of of $3.057, itself reached in September of 2005 after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and damaged major oil refineries in Louisiana.
Most of the crude oil produced at Alaska`s North Slope every day goes to refineries in Washington state, California and Hawaii. BP America will not be permitted to re-open the line until the clean-up from a related oil spill is finished and sufficient repairs and safeguards are in place to prevent a similar situation in the near future. Bob Malone, chairman of BP America, said the company ?is doing everything to put the pipeline back into operations? although he said it could ?take weeks or even months to replace the pipelines, depending on the total extent of the damage.?
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