Anchorage - Oil production on Alaska's North Slope was back to normal yesterday, a day after workers welded shut a bullet hole that had punctured the trans-Alaska pipeline and forced a shutdown of the system.
The pipeline shutdown was ordered on Thursday afternoon, after inspectors found that a gunman had shot the oil line with a high-powered rifle. Crude oil, propelled by high pressure inside the line, shot out of the hole and coated two to three acres of spruce forest. Clean-up crews, using vacuum trucks and containment pits, had recovered 108,608 gallons by yesterday.