BP approved to restart most of oil production in Prudhoe Bay

BP Plc said Friday the U.S. government has given it permission to restart most of the oil production from its Prudhoe Bay field in northern Alaska.

The London-based oil giant said it will take about a week to bring back about 150,000 barrels of oil a day of the 200,000 barrels shut off last month.

"The three separation facilities that are coming back online will produce about 150,000 barrels per day of oil," said BP spokesman Daren Beaudo. But he said he did not know when the rest of the production would return.

The company will then run maintenance and inspection devices, called "pigs" in the industry, through the pipelines to ensure they are sound and working properly, he said.

"This is an important milestone in returning all of Prudhoe Bay to production many months in advance of our complete replacement of 16 miles of oil transit lines," David Peattie, a BP vice president, said in a written statement.

BP shut down 200,000 of its 450,000 barrel-per-day Prudhoe Bay field in early August when it found severe corrosion in pipeline.

Source: Xinhua