The British oil giant BP worked through the weekend to control a damaged oil well in Alaska’s remote North Slope that had started spewing natural gas vapors on Friday morning, the company and Alaska officials said. Alaskan and federal officials have identified two leaks venting methane gas, a powerful greenhouse gas linked to climate change. Photo“The cause of the discharge is unknown at this time,” federal and state officials said in a statement late on Saturday. Last week, divers placed a clamp over a gash in an underwater pipeline in Cook Inlet, halting the flow of millions of cubic feet of natural gas. Alaskan oil production has been in a sharp decline in recent years, as output from shale fields in Texas and North Dakota has come to dominate the industry.

Source: New York Times April 16, 2017 17:26 UTC