ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Aug 5 - Oil production from Alaska's Cook Inlet was expected to restart next week after being shut for months by a series of volcanic eruptions, a spokeswoman for the oil-field operator said on Wednesday.
Chevron (CVX.N) hopes to restart production at the Trading Bay and Granite Point fields on Monday or Tuesday since the Redoubt Volcano has now quietened down and an onshore oil-loading terminal is being put back into service, said company spokeswoman Roxanne Sinz.
The restart was expected to be phased in over a week and production, even when fully restarted, will likely fall short of the 7,500 barrel-a-day level that was normal prior to Redoubt's first big eruption on March 22, Sinz said.
"If we're lucky, it'll probably be a little lower," she said. Reservoir conditions in the aged fields might have deteriorated during the four-month shutdown, affecting production rates, she said.
Redoubt, a 10,197-foot (3,108-metre) volcano located about 100 miles (161 kilometres) southwest of Anchorage, had a series of explosive eruptions during late March and early April.
Those explosions unleashed mudflows, floods, showers of rock and billowing ash clouds. Unsafe conditions forced an immediate shutdown at the Drift River Terminal near the base of Redoubt. That shutdown, in turn, caused Chevron to run out of storage space for its Cook Inlet oil, forcing a suspension of production.
Although Redoubt is still steaming occasionally, it has not had a big eruption since April 4, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory, the joint state-federal office that monitors and studies Alaska's volcanoes.
With conditions deemed safe enough to resume limited activities, the Drift River Terminal this week is undergoing cleanup and restart tasks, according to state and federal officials and the company that operates the terminal.
The terminal's operator, Cook Inlet Pipe Line Co, said it plans to reopen the 42-mile underwater pipeline that brings oil from the offshore production sites to shore.
However, there are no plans yet to restart storage operations at the terminal. Instead, oil will be shipped directly from the production platforms through the pipeline and into a waiting oil tanker, Cook Inlet Pipe Line said.
Cook Inlet Pipe Line is owned by Chevron and Pacific Energy Resources PFE.TO, a partner in the fields that feed the terminal. Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) also holds a minor share in the affected fields.
Cook Inlet natural gas production was not affected by Redoubt.
Prior to this year, Redoubt had a similar eruptive phase during the winter of 1989 and 1990, a five-month period when shipping and storage operations at Drift River were also suspended.
Chevron (CVX.N) hopes to restart production at the Trading Bay and Granite Point fields on Monday or Tuesday since the Redoubt Volcano has now quietened down and an onshore oil-loading terminal is being put back into service, said company spokeswoman Roxanne Sinz.
The restart was expected to be phased in over a week and production, even when fully restarted, will likely fall short of the 7,500 barrel-a-day level that was normal prior to Redoubt's first big eruption on March 22, Sinz said.
"If we're lucky, it'll probably be a little lower," she said. Reservoir conditions in the aged fields might have deteriorated during the four-month shutdown, affecting production rates, she said.
Redoubt, a 10,197-foot (3,108-metre) volcano located about 100 miles (161 kilometres) southwest of Anchorage, had a series of explosive eruptions during late March and early April.
Those explosions unleashed mudflows, floods, showers of rock and billowing ash clouds. Unsafe conditions forced an immediate shutdown at the Drift River Terminal near the base of Redoubt. That shutdown, in turn, caused Chevron to run out of storage space for its Cook Inlet oil, forcing a suspension of production.
Although Redoubt is still steaming occasionally, it has not had a big eruption since April 4, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory, the joint state-federal office that monitors and studies Alaska's volcanoes.
With conditions deemed safe enough to resume limited activities, the Drift River Terminal this week is undergoing cleanup and restart tasks, according to state and federal officials and the company that operates the terminal.
The terminal's operator, Cook Inlet Pipe Line Co, said it plans to reopen the 42-mile underwater pipeline that brings oil from the offshore production sites to shore.
However, there are no plans yet to restart storage operations at the terminal. Instead, oil will be shipped directly from the production platforms through the pipeline and into a waiting oil tanker, Cook Inlet Pipe Line said.
Cook Inlet Pipe Line is owned by Chevron and Pacific Energy Resources PFE.TO, a partner in the fields that feed the terminal. Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) also holds a minor share in the affected fields.
Cook Inlet natural gas production was not affected by Redoubt.
Prior to this year, Redoubt had a similar eruptive phase during the winter of 1989 and 1990, a five-month period when shipping and storage operations at Drift River were also suspended.
