BP trying to get its image back online
British oil giant BP plans to restart oil production in Alaska today after cutting some output from its Prudhoe Bay field last week. The leak that sparked the shutdown was tiny, but BP's got more than pipelines to repair. Stephen Beard reports.
TEXT OF STORY
Doug Krizner: Meantime BP is restoring its Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska to full capacity this morning. We have more from Stephen Beard
Stephen Beard: The leak was tiny. Less than a gallon of oil was spilled. Nevertheless BP shut down 10,000 barrels of output a day for a week just to carry out a minor repair.
This costly exercise may look like an overreaction, but after BP’s Texas City Refinery disaster and the huge oil spillage in Alaska last year, BP has an image to repair, says Chris Skrebowski of Petroleum Review.
Chris Skrebowski: They’ll have to spend perhaps more than is strictly warranted for a bit on maintenance, on addressing even the smallest of setbacks, in order to reassure both regulators and public.
BP has promised to spend an extra half a billion dollars maintaining and repairing its pipelines in Alaska.
In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.