Co denies cover-up as safety queries mount

WASHINGTON: BP denied it had ignored corrosion problems at its stricken Alaskan pipeline for years as it battled to fix operations at America’s biggest oil field.

The British energy group is facing mounting criticism about its US safety record after announcing on Sunday that it was shutting down the giant Prudhoe Bay oil field due to a corroded pipeline that caused a small oil spill.

A news report stated that an advocate for BP workers in Alaska, Chuck Hamel, had notified a top company official of widespread corrosion at the field over two years ago.

Mr Hamel said he wrote to Walter Massey, chairman of the environment committee of BP’s non-executive board of directors, in May ’04 laying out concerns about safety relayed over the previous four years by BP workers.

“They seek to see the corrosion problem addressed and corrective action undertaken before any of their colleagues at Prudhoe are harmed,” Mr Hamel wrote in the letter, according to the report.

BP responded by sending lawyers to Alaska “with questions that seemed aimed more at identifying whistleblowers than uncovering corrosion,” Mr Hamel said. BP America chairman Bob Malone denied claims the firm had brushed off Mr Hamel’s concerns.

“BP encourages our employees or the public to raise concerns and we have no interest in who is raising the concern,” Mr Malone said in an interview. He said BP had a “world-class” program against corrosion, “but what we’ve found is we had a gap”.

Mr Malone also said that engineers were scrambling to see if BP could avoid a complete shutdown of the field and keep at least 200,000 bpd of oil gushing. Engineers will take a decision between Friday and Monday, he said.