Prudhoe Bay, Alaska

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Location of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska

Prudhoe Bay (IPA: [ˈpɹu doʊ]) is a census-designated place (CDP) located in North Slope Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2000 census, the population of the CDP was 5. According to the United States Census Bureau, it is one of only eight places in the United States with a population of five people. The others are Storrie, California; Bear Head Lake, Minnesota; Baker, Missouri; Gross, Nebraska; Odell, New Hampshire; Maza, North Dakota; and Somerset, Vermont.

Despite the low census figures, Prudhoe Bay is actually quite a busy place; at any moment, there are several thousand temporary workers running the Prudhoe Bay oil field or supporting it in some way. The airport, lodging, and general store are clustered in a location called Deadhorse, while the rigs and processing facilities are located on scattered gravel "pads" laid on top of the tundra. Winter is just as busy as summer, since only at that time is the surface hard enough to support heavy equipment, and so all new construction happens then.

A small number of tourists, many arriving by bus after a two-day ride up the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks, come to see the tundra, the Arctic Ocean, and the midnight sun, staying in extremely basic lodgings assembled from "modular" buildings.

Prudhoe Bay was named after Lord Prudhoe (for Prudhoe, England), a good friend of arctic explorer John Franklin.

Contents

[edit] Geography

State of Alaska map showing place names and Trans-Alaska pipeline route in red.
State of Alaska map showing place names and Trans-Alaska pipeline route in red.

Prudhoe Bay is located at 70°19'32" North, 148°42'41" West (70.325490, -148.711387)GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 1,445.3 km² (558.0 mi²). 1,078.1 km² (416.3 mi²) of it is land and 367.2 km² (141.8 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 25.40% water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there is one household in the town, consisting of one married couple between 25 and 44 and two boys and one girl under 18; the median age of the family is 12 years. One person is White, one is Native American, and three from two races. The income for this household is $90,957, or $19,880 per capita. The population density is 0.0/km². There is 1 housing unit.

[edit] Prudhoe Bay oil field

Commercial oil exploration started in Prudhoe Bay in the 1960s and the field was discovered in 1968 by Atlantic Richfield Company, but production did not begin until 1977 when the Alaska Pipeline was completed. Production peaked in 1988 at about 2 million barrels a day, but had fallen to below 1 million barrels a day by May 2005.[1], or roughly 300 million barrels a year. Total production from 1977 through 2005 has been 13 billion barrels. As of December 2005, it is estimated that only 3 billion barrels are left (recoverable), which is roughly 10 years of production at the current rate. In terms of recoverable oil, the Prudhoe Bay field is the largest in the United States, more than double the size of the East Texas oil field, the second largest.

[edit] March 2006 oil spill

On March 2, 2006, a worker for BP Exploration (Alaska) discovered a large oil spill in western Prudhoe Bay. At least 6,350 barrels spilled, making it the largest oil spill on Alaska's north slope to date.[2]

[edit] August 2006 shutdown

The March 2006 oil spill led the United States Department of Transportation to mandate that the transit lines be inspected for corrosion. As a result, BP announced on 6 August 2006 they had discovered severe corrosion, with losses of 70 to 81 percent in the 3/8-inch of the wall thickness of the pipe. Oil leaking was reported in one area, with the equivalent of four to five barrels of oil spilled.[3] The damage required replacement of 16 of 22 miles of pipeline at the Prudhoe Bay. BP said it was surprised to find such severe corrosion and that it had been 14 years since they had used a pipeline inspection gauge ("pig") to clean out its lines because the company did not believe use of the pig was necessary.[4] BP Exploration announced that they were shutting down the oil field indefinitely, due to the severe corrosion and a minor leak in the oil transit lines.[4][5] This led to an 8% reduction in the amount of oil produced by the United States of America, as Prudhoe Bay is the country's largest oil producer, producing over 400,000 barrels a day.

BP initially estimated up to 2 to 3 months before the pipelines would be fully operational[4], but has now revised that out to January 2007.[6] London brent crude hit an intra-day high of $77.73/barrel, the all-time high being $78.18/barrel. United States crude oil peaked at $76.67/barrel. The State of Alaska, which gets most of its revenue from taxing the oil industry may lose as much as $6.4 million each day until production restarts.[7]

No part of the Alaska Pipeline was affected, although Alyeska said that lower crude oil volumes could slow pumping during the BP shutdown.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ US Republicans set to turn Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge into oilfield. Bellona.com (14 April 2005). Retrieved on August 8, 2006.
  2. ^ "Alaska hit by 'massive' oil spill", BBC News, 11 March 2006. Retrieved on August 8, 2006.
  3. ^ Biggest Oil Field in U.S. Is Forced to Stop Pumping. New York Times (2006-08-08).
  4. ^ a b c Pemberton, Mary. "Gas prices climb as oil pipeline in Alaska must be replaced", The Daily Texan, 8 August 2006. Retrieved on August 8, 2006.
  5. ^ "BP shutting top US oil field Prudhoe Bay due to spill", Reuters, 7 August 2006. Retrieved on August 8, 2006.
  6. ^ "BP oil field 'closed until 2007'", CNN.com, August 8, 2008. Retrieved on August 8, 2006.
  7. ^ Loy, Wesley. "BP shuts down Prudhoe Bay", Anchorage Daily News, 7 August 2006. Retrieved on August 8, 2006.
  8. ^ Wesley Loy and Richard Richtmyer. "Massive repairs: BP admits corrosion control was inadequate, prepares to replace North Slope transit lines", Anchorage Daily News, August 8, 2006. Retrieved on August 8, 2006.

[edit] External links


Flag of Alaska
 State of Alaska
Juneau (capital)
Regions

Aleutian Islands | Arctic Alaska | Bush Alaska | Interior | Kenai Peninsula | Mat‑Su Valley | North Slope | Panhandle | Seward Peninsula | Southcentral | Southwest | Tanana Valley | Yukon‑Kuskokwim Delta
Largest cities

Anchorage | Barrow | Bethel | Fairbanks | Homer | Juneau | Kenai | Ketchikan | Kodiak | Kotzebue | Nome | Palmer | Petersburg | Seward | Sitka | Unalaska | Valdez | Wasilla
Boroughs

Aleutians East | Anchorage | Bristol Bay | Denali | Fairbanks North Star | Haines | Juneau | Kenai Peninsula | Ketchikan Gateway | Kodiak Island | Lake and Peninsula | Matanuska‑Susitna | North Slope | Northwest Arctic | Sitka | Yakutat
Census areas

Aleutians West | Bethel | Dillingham | Nome | Prince of Wales‑Outer Ketchikan | Skagway‑Hoonah‑Angoon | Southeast Fairbanks | Valdez‑Cordova | Wade Hampton | Wrangell‑Petersburg | Yukon‑Koyukuk | (see also) Unorganized Borough


Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../p/r/u/Prudhoe_Bay%2C_Alaska_4ef2.html"
In other languages