Alaskan Pipeline Corrosion

[NewToy]

With the record profits that the oil companies are making it's a darn shame that they cannot maintain their infrastructure. I don't care if it is a real bear to diagnose this problem, they should be on top of it. They have no incentive to do so as they just pass the additional costs directly to the end user. (Us)
They should be held accountable for their ineptitude, fine them a few billion or so. The fellow in charge of their pipeline maintenance should be set adrift on an iceberg.

John

 

[_RaT_]

 

[EddieWalker]

NewToy,

It would really help if you explained what is wrong or is happening to the pipeline.

What happened?

Eddie

 

[Bird]

Eddie, have you missed the news stories about BP shutting down some pipelines on the North Slope? It seems that corrosion has made the pipe a bit thin in places. It looks like they may be shut down for several months to repair about 16 miles of pipe (not the big Trans-Alaska pipeline, but smaller lines leading to it). If I remember right, 400,000 gallons a day or 8% of the U.S. production that will be shut down awhile. Gas prices at the pumps already going up with forecasts of 5 to 15 cents.

Of course, the idea of fining them would just result in them raising our prices to pay the fine so I don't think that would help.

 

[California]

Here's Yahoo News' current update. It's in their Top Stories section:

Link to news article

The concern is that shutting down the largest US oilfield will raise gas prices.

Also, the spills and corrosion seem to indicate neglect by the operators. This could possibly end up as big a story as the Exxon Valdez crash if all the pipelines have to be replaced before resuming production. It's too early to tell - nobody was monitoring corrosion until some pipes rusted through.

 

[2nstonge]

I guess the kicker is that they have the 'pig' to send down the line for cleaning and testing but haven't used it for something like 14 years "because the fed gov doesn't mandate it". Great. Let's wait 'til it leaks (which it has done twice recently) or has a catastrophic failure (some of the pipe is more than 80% corroded) before we address it.

In the mean time, record profits for all!

-Norm

 

[Bird]

There have been so many news stories and I don't know how accurate they were, nor for that matter just how accurate my memory is on this topic, but I think I read somewhere that the reason they gave for not using the pig was that sludge buildup would prevent it from working right.

 

[livincountry]

I'm glad someone else recalled the in-pipe inspection robot besides me. Funny though.... seems like oil futures area based on headlines. I guess they are focused on the latest airline terrorist threat or the ******-Lebanon war and forgot 8% of our supply is on hold. Fuel here is Ohio has stayed under $3.00.

I live in the country and am in sales where I drove 50K+ miles per year in my car. Regardless of fuel price...I'm buying it to eat Bicycles and motorscooters are pretty much out of the question. "Gee can I take you to lunch on the back of my Vepsa?"

 

[LMTC]

With the record profits that the oil companies are making it's a darn shame that they cannot maintain their infrastructure. I don't care if it is a real bear to diagnose this problem, they should be on top of it. They have no incentive to do so as they just pass the additional costs directly to the end user. (Us)
They should be held accountable for their ineptitude, fine them a few billion or so. The fellow in charge of their pipeline maintenance should be set adrift on an iceberg.

John

Or we could put the folks adrift on that iceberg that have prevented us from developing our own reserves in Colorado and ANWR so that we would have better sources. Why is it ineptitude? Stuff has to be fixed. Buildings shut elevators down all the time for maintenance. If there were building environmentalists who fought to allow only one elevator per building, then there would be no running elevators when the one was down for routine maintenance. If there wasn't so much opposition to drilling and building pipelines and refineries, this shut down would have far less impact.

 

[Bird]

Fuel here is Ohio has stayed under $3.00.

Today Wal-mart (Murphy USA) was $2.899, Sam's Club was $2.829 and I noticed a Valero station at $3.099.