Oil prices climbed more than $2 a barrel Aug. 7 on the news. The U.S. government is considering releasing oil from its emergency stockpile to ease the crunch.

London-based BP said it will have to replace most of the 35 km of so-called transit pipeline at Prudhoe Bay, which produces about 2.6 percent of the United States' daily supply of gas, or about 400,000 barrels a day.

BP discovered the extent of the corrosion with tests that were ordered by the federal government after a big oil spill last March at Prudhoe Bay, situated above the Arctic Circle, 1,050 km north of Anchorage.

The oil company said it was surprised to find such severe corrosion, and had gone 14 years without cleaning out its lines because it did not believe it was necessary.

The Japan Times Weekly: Aug. 12, 2006
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