Then the giant Prudhoe Bay field was discovered and everyone ran off to work there instead.

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BP's stake in the Prudhoe Bay field is only 26%, meaning that its production loss amounts to 50, 000 barrels per day.

FORBES: Magazine Article

We're talking about the loss here, by the way, of 400, 000 barrels of oil every day while the flow is shut down in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay oil field.

NPR: Marketplace Report: Prudhoe Pipeline Shutdown

In addition, the firm had to close part of its Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska earlier this year, after leaks were discovered in one of its pipes.

BBC: NEWS | Business | BP faces fines after Texas blast

Browne was no doubt referring to last year's temporary closure of some operations at the Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska, delays to the opening of BP's Thunder Horse platform in the Gulf of Mexico, and problems stemming from the 2005 explosion at a Texas refinery that killed 15 BP employees.

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"We think that the future may be sooner than some of us are considering, " Robert Hunter, president of ASRC Energy Services, which led the first major field study in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay with BP Alaska Exploration and the Department of Energy, told Petroleum News.

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"We think that the future may be sooner than some of us are considering, " Robert Hunter, president of ASRC Energy Services, which led the first major field study in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay with BP (nyse: BP - news - people ) Alaska Exploration and the Department of Energy, told Petroleum News.

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Boone Pickens points out, that's the size of the largest oil field the U.S. has ever had--Alaska's Prudhoe Bay.

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