ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- An oil company responsible for the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline said Monday it had launched a "significant" effort to control a North Slope accident.
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. during the weekend shut down the Trans-Alaska pipeline when workers found oil leaking at a pump station on the North Slope. The company called on British energy company BP to cut output by 95 percent.
Officials at Alyeska said the pipeline carries about 642,000 barrels of oil each day, though the company said Monday the pipeline is still closed.
"We have a significant amount of resources, tools and personnel on site at pump station 1 responding to this event," Alyeska President Tom Barrett said in a statement. "Our goal is to engineer and implement a solution so that we can safely return the pipeline to service as quickly as possible."
The company said it estimated as much as 10 barrels, or around 420 gallons, of oil were recovered from the pump station. This represents about 90 percent of what Alyeska said it thought was spilled during the Saturday accident.
Alyeska said in a statement that engineers were "evaluating options" for a restart, adding no injuries are adverse environmental impacts were reported.
The leak comes as oil prices hover around $90 per barrel. Gasoline prices passed the $3 per gallon mark for U.S. drivers, though analysts and former oil executives say $100 per barrel of oil and $5 per gallon of gasoline are on the horizon.
