Damage reduces oil production
Oil production at Prudhoe Bay, the nation’s most prolific oil field, halted when a vehicle clearing snowdrifts damaged the power supply to processing centers.
Prudhoe Bay had been sending about 380,000 barrels of crude oil a day down the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, said Steve Rinehart, spokesman for field operator BP. Rinehart said production for the day would be “way down” and would ramp back up over the next several days.
BP’s Northstar field also went offline as a result of the power outage. Northstar produces about 79,000 barrels of crude daily from a man-made island in the Beaufort Sea. All told, Alaska’s North Slope fields produce about 730,000 barrels each day.
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