By Daisuke Wakabayashi

PRUDHOE BAY, Alaska (Reuters) - Oil production from the western half of BP's giant Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska has risen above 200,000 barrels per day, the head of BP's Alaskan unit said in prepared remarks to a committee of the Alaska state legislature on Friday.

"The western operating area has now been restored to production of over 200,000 barrels per day. We are continuing our inspection program and have added additional aerial and ground infrared monitoring of this side of the field," Steve Marshall said in his speech to the Joint Senate and House Resources Committee, a copy of which was given to Reuters by BP officials.

"The eastern operating area is currently not producing with the exception of Point McIntyre, which is producing 18,000 barrels of oil daily," Marshall said.

BP restarted the Point McIntyre field this week after completing planned maintenance that began before the company announced it was shutting down the eastern side of the Prudhoe Bay field due to severe corrosion in an oil transit pipeline.

Marshall reiterated that BP is studying plans to bypass trouble spots on the shutdown eastern oil transit line at Prudhoe Bay, but he would not give a timetable for returning the 400,000 bpd field to full production.

Following the discovery of the serious corrosion problems, BP announced it would replace all 16 miles of oil transit pipelines at the Prudhoe Bay field itself, out of 22 miles of such lines in the Greater Prudhoe Bay Unit.

Marshall said BP expected the replacement pipeline to arrive in Alaska in the fourth quarter of 2006 allowing the company to begin work on replacing the lines during the winter construction season.

BP is currently carrying out extensive infrared surveys of the western half of Prudhoe Bay both from the air and on the ground in order to detect any problems, Marshall said.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said last week it would allow BP to continue operating the western half of Prudhoe Bay provided the company carry out extensive tests of the pipelines in the area.

BP says Prudhoe Bay now pumping 220,000 bpd