Money and Metals

Some big news in the oil market. "Oil company BP has indefinitely shut down the nation's biggest oilfield after finding a pipeline leak, removing about 8 percent of U.S. oil production and stoking fears that already high gas prices will shoot up further.'

"Steve Marshall, president of BP Exploration Alaska Inc., said Sunday night that the eastern side of Prudhoe Bay would be shut down first, an operation anticipated to take 24 to 36 hours. The company will then move to shut down the west side, a move that could close more than 1,000 Prudhoe Bay wells."

"Once the field is shut down, BP said oil production will be reduced by 400,000 barrels a day. That's close to 8 percent of U.S. oil production or about 2.6 percent of U.S. supply including imports."

"BP officials said they didn't know how long the Prudhoe Bay field would be off line. 'I don't even know how long it's going to take to shut it down,' said Tom Williams, BP's senior tax and royalty counsel."

"'"Oil prices could increase by as much as $10 per barrel given the current environment,' said Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo. 'But we can't really say for sure how big an effect this is going to have until we have more exact figures about how much production is going to be reduced.'"

"But Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore, said he expected the impact to be minimal since crude inventories are high."