BP denies cover-up as safety questions mount


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. Six years of whistleblowers contradict PR campaign.


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 Financial Times reported 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.

Hamel said he wrote to Walter Massey, the chairman of the environment committee of BP’s non-executive board of directors, in May 2004 laying out concerns about safety relayed over the previous four years by BP workers.

BP responded by sending lawyers to Alaska “with questions that seemed aimed more at identifying whistleblowers than uncovering corrosion”.

BP had a net profit of $12.9 billion in the first half of 2006. Don’t you think they could have spared a few bucks to replace corroded pipes? It’s not like it was a real surprise.

Posted: Thu - August 10, 2006 at 06:02 AM