British Petroleum (BP) will be able to restart 105,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil production from the eastern side of Prudhoe Bay within a few weeks after Alaska regulators approved the oil company s plan to connect the field to the nearby Endicott pipeline. Alaskan authorities said they granted temporary permits late last week to BP to install connections between the Endicott and eastern Prudhoe Bay. Output from Prudhoe Bay already is rising due to the completion of planned maintenance on the western side of the field, which is still operating. BP is working on several solutions to restart the 200,000 bpd of oil production from eastern Prudhoe Bay that has been shut down since early August after government-ordered tests found severe corrosion in a segment of the eastern oil transit pipeline at the field.
