BP's newest big problemsBP's newest big problems Posted May 29th 2007 4:17PM by Weld Royal Filed under: Bad news, Management, Consumer experience, BP p.l.c. ADS (BP), Valero Energy (VLO), Commodities, Oil As Americans emptied their wallets to pay for gas over the weekend, BP p.l.c. ADS (NYSE: BP), London, hurried to fix a problem in Alaska that is contributing to the consumer price spike. BP officials at America's largest oil field -- Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's North Slope -- cut oil production by a quarter last week after they found a hole about the diameter of a pencil in a water pipe. On Sunday, after several days of round-the-clock repair work and tests to the damaged area, they restored full production. BP is in the process of replacing 16-miles of pipe after corrosion caused the North Slope's largest oil spill in August of 2006. A detailed report in the Chicago Tribune traces problems at BP to cutbacks during the days of cheap oil in the late 1990s. Tribune chief business correspondent David Greising (more...)