BP denies it manipulated Alaska data

The Associated Press

BP on Aug. 21 denied allegations that the oil giant manipulated data from inspections of pipelines at Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, where operations were curtailed this month following a pipeline leak.

The Financial Times reported that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was probing allegations by BP workers that the company manipulated data to avoid replacing pipelines.

“We’ve been working with the DOT (Department of Transportation) and the EPA since we notified them of the original leak two weeks ago,” said Robert Wine, a BP spokesman in London.

BP would provide any information requested by the investigators, Wine said, and referred other questions to BP’s operation in Alaska.

Alaska Attorney General David Marquez told a special hearing of the state legislature being held in Anchorage on Aug. 18 that the state had served subpoenas on BP and other Prudhoe Bay leaseholders to preserve all documentation related to the Aug. 6 event and pipeline corrosion dating to 1996.

The Financial Times quoted unidentified workers as claiming that BP inspected more areas of known good pipe than bad, creating the impression that the pipeline was in better shape than it really was.

Days after the shutdown, the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration ordered the company to conduct more rigorous tests on the so-called transit pipelines, which carry market-ready oil to the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline. DOT engineers have been onsite since Aug. 8.

Acting U.S. Transportation Secretary Maria Cino toured BP’s facilities in Alaska on Aug. 18 and said she was surprised and disappointed by what she had seen of the company’s maintenance procedures.

“When we look at other operators, this problem has not been found,” Cino said. “I think this problem is unique to BP.”