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BP Alaska accused of probation violation Failure to heed warnings on frozen pipe led to rupture, shows negligence, federal official says; extended probation, fine possible Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. has a Dec. 20 court date to answer an accusation that it violated its criminal probation imposed after the Prudhoe Bay pipeline spills of 2006.
The company’s federal probation officer, Mary Frances Barnes, on Nov. 17 petitioned the U.S. District Court in Anchorage for a summons for BP.
Barnes believes the company committed violations of its three-year term of probation, which was to end on Nov. 28. She’s recommending the probation be revoked.
Ruptured pipeline The violations, Barnes says, center on an incident in November 2009 when a pipeline carrying a warm mixture of crude oil, produced water and natural gas from wells to the Lisburne Production Center ruptured, discharging about 13,000 gallons of oil onto the tundra.
The pipeline, 18 inches in diameter, was looped with a 24-inch pipeline, “meaning that both lines carried the same fluids from a common source to a common endpoint,” the court petition says. The 24-inch line did not rupture.
At some point in late May of 2009, flow in the 18-inch line slowed or stopped completely while flow in the larger pipe continued. Later, warning alarms consistently registered low temperatures for the 18-inch line, but BP operators “failed to respond to the alarms and failed to investigate or troubleshoot the cause of the alarms,” Barnes wrote. The alarm setting for the pipeline’s surface-mounted temperature sensor was set to “informational,” a low-priority status indicating to workers that a response was not required.
Around Nov. 14, 2009, after 165 days of low-temperature alarms, BP determined that an ice plug or hydrate blockage had developed in the pipeline. About two weeks later, a BP operator driving along the elevated line discovered a rupture, the petition says.
The formation and expansion of the ice or hydrates overpressured the line. “In effect, the pipeline exploded,” Barnes wrote, opening a jagged hole about 2.75 feet long and 1.46 feet wide, the petition says.
BP had experienced a similar rupture in frozen looped pipelines on the North Slope in 2001 and made recommendations to prevent a recurrence. But in its internal investigation into the 2009 rupture, BP “acknowledges that it failed to implement these preventative measures.”
BP’s failure to follow its own preventative measures, and its lack of response to the low-temperature alarms, constitutes criminal negligence, Barnes wrote.
Fine, more probation possible In late 2007, BP Alaska was sentenced to three years on probation and ordered to pay millions in fines and restitution after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor pollution violation in connection with a Prudhoe pipeline leak that allowed 212,252 gallons of crude to spill. BP was accused of neglecting the pipeline, allowing corrosion to spread.
Steve Rinehart, BP spokesman in Anchorage, had little to say about the alleged probation violation.
“We will respond in court in due course,” he told Petroleum News. He did say the company distributed a “safety bulletin” to workers after the 2009 pipeline rupture explaining what went wrong.
An official in the U.S. attorney’s office explained the court could take essentially three actions in response to Barnes’ filing. The judge could continue BP’s probation, perhaps with new conditions attached. He also could fine the company. Or, it’s possible the judge will do nothing if BP can successfully challenge the allegation.
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