Oil giants to shut down pipelines during date change

Oil firms are taking the cautious approach to the New Year Eve's date change despite extensive programmes to ensure systems are Y2K complaint.

US company, Explorer Pipeline, the second-largest refined-products pipeline in the States, will be shut down from 5pm on 31 December until 1pm on 1 January.

The Explorer pipeline runs from Houston to Chicago, covering 1,400 miles and transporting over 800,000 barrels of refined products, such as fuel and distillates, a day.

Rival company, Colonial, claimed it would also shut down transportation of refined products but only for 8 hours, starting at 6.30pm on 31 December. Colonial is responsible for piping oil products from Houston to New York across 5,300 miles.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, BP Amoco said it was taking a similarly prudent approach, despite completing a two-and-a-half year Y2K remedial project.

A BP Amoco spokesman said: "We have no plans to shut down our business due to Y2K. There will be bits of the business closed during the turnaround period - we might stop unloading ships for a half-day just in case of unforeseen problems. But why not be prudent, it's better to be safe than sorry."

Explorer Pipeline said loss of supply should not affect consumers as the company has stockpiled extra capacity to cover the period of downtime.