BP defends safety record to shareholders

British oil company BP PLC defended its safety record to shareholders at its annual meeting in London April 20 amid an investigation into a pipeline break at its Alaska facility which resulted in the company’s largest-ever oil spill.

BP Chairman Peter Sutherland said the company had learned important lessons following March’s massive oil spill on Alaska’s Northern Slope and a deadly explosion at BP’s Texas City, Texas, refinery last year that killed 15 workers and injured hundreds more.

Sutherland said BP had conducted an “extremely thorough internal inquiry” and appointed an independent panel of advisers, led by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, to study safety systems and culture at all its U.S. refineries.

Critic says company has ‘blind spot’

“It’s interesting to hear Mr. Sutherland say that safety is not a systemic problem, when it most certainly is,” Athan Manuel, an environmental lobbyist with Washington-based U.S. Public Interest Research Groups, said after the meeting. “They have continued to have a blind spot toward safety and maintenance.”

A pipeline break at BP’s Prudhoe Bay facility on Alaska’s Northern Slope last month spilled as much as 270,000 gallons of crude over an estimated period of five days.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched an investigation into the spill and has subpoenaed a consulting firm that participated in the company’s corrosion control efforts, BP spokesman Daren Beaudo said April 17.

The EPA will neither confirm nor deny any probe into the incident, citing agency policy. BP officials have said that internal corrosion was the likely cause of the break.

A smaller pipeline break on a natural gas line at the Alaskan facility occurred April 6, although officials said the amount of gas leaked in that incident was well below regulatory standards for reporting to state and federal agencies.

—The Associated Press