Posted on 08/08/2006 4:38:02 PM PDT by John W
WASHINGTON - When British Petroleum (BP) shut down a vital oil pipeline, the company blamed "unexpectedly severe corrosion" in transit pipes. Yet only five months ago, BP's aging pipeline created the largest-ever oil spill on Alaska’s North Slope.
Federal regulators blamed the spill on "internal corrosion" and said in some areas the walls of the pipes were so corroded they were almost paper-thin.
So critics and industry experts say the latest problem was hardly a surprise.
"I think this was predictable and preventable," says Phil Flynn, an energy analyst with Alaron Trading Corp.
In fact, allegations about BP's maintenance practices have been so persistent that a criminal investigation now is under way into whether BP has for years deliberately shortchanged maintenance and falsified records to cover it up.
The criminal probe was triggered by Chuck Hamel, a longtime nemesis of the oil companies and advocate for oil workers.
"They're playing the Russian roulette up there," he says.
Hamel says a dozen past and current BP employees came to him claiming they'd been told to cut back on a chemical put into the system to retard rust and corrosion, and to falsify records. A federal official confirms that many of these workers have also talked to the FBI.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
or about $2.75 in todays dollars! LOL
Good eat'in too!
Living in denial, you are my friend.
Me too.
Hamel says a dozen past and current BP employees came to him claiming they'd been told to cut back on a chemical put into the system to retard rust and corrosion, and to falsify records.
If this turns out to be true...well, I'm forever amazed at the flipping idiocy of people who can't see the inevitable result. Penny wise and prison foolish.
Sure.. it's a British Company and obviously it's poorly run because Blair is in power.. he can't handle Iraq and he can't handle his oil companies.
It's because Bush and Blair our friends that Blair must of paid off Bush to look the other way since it was on U.S. soil.
Blair's fault and Bush is the scapegoat.
Sarc off.
BP Environmental management systems
http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=2011367&contentId=2016619
"Corrosion management
BPXA spends about $50 million annually to monitor, locate, repair and manage the effects of corrosion that occurs when an electrochemical process breaks down steel. On Alaska's North Slope, we operate thousands of steel vessels and most of the 1,600-plus miles of pipelines that carry oil, water and gas from wellsites through processing facilities and ultimately to sales or injection points. We semi-annually review our corrosion plan with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Under the plan, corrosion managers direct corrosion mitigation resources to protect and extend the life of the assets.
Internal corrosion rates have declined 90% since 1992. The annual inspection program consists of approximately 100,000 locations. Internal corrosion inspections have remained relatively constant with about 60,000 inspections per year. The external corrosion program was substantially increased in 2002 from the historical level of more than 13,000 locations per year to about 35,000 locations in 2003. External corrosion was the cause of a 6,000-gallon oil and water spill in Prudhoe Bay in May 2003. The line was shut down for several days and repaired, and crews completed site cleanup. BP has committed to the state oversight agency to gather soil and water samples to assess the natural attenuation of the site through the summer of 2005.
There have been some unexpected sulfate reducing bacteria creating new problems.
From the earlier spill this year:
BP: Learning from oil spill lessons
http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/573947058.shtml
Systems and system narratives are great.Actual recordkeeping of what really happened will be more important in the criminal investigation.
Thank you for the input.
I pay about the same for a gallon of milk and I don't think I'm being "screwed over" by cows!
And in the last 5 years, BP has sucked in over 60 Billion Dollars In Profit...
If the life expectancy was 20 years, there's no excuse for not having a new system in place ready to switch over...Oh, except for greed...
Start drinking 5-10 gallons of milk a day and heat your house with warm milk, you might start singing another tune, Or, buy your own cow...
Not my cup a tea, but heh, and you got some big horns to hold on to...
When would you have shut dow our largest oilfield to replace the pipeline? Just curious as to when the optimun time would have been
"Start drinking 5-10 gallons of milk a day and heat your house with warm milk, you might start singing another tune, Or, buy your own cow..."
The environmentalists would outlaw cows if you could power an SUV on milk
Wow, 60 billion. For perspective,what was their profit as a percentage of revenue? How does that percentage compare to the average corporate profit?
If the life expectancy was 20 years, there's no excuse for not having a new system in place ready to switch over...Oh, except for greed...
Greed? Being shut down for months at a loss of $28 million dollars per day in revenue doesn't sound like greed. It's more likely that their monitoring of corrosion was inadequate or corrosion conditions in the pipe may have suddenly changed, e.g. the new occurence of sulfate reducing bacteria resulting in higher concentrations of hyrdogen sulfide gas, which especially in the presence of CO2, can rapidly accelerate corrosion.
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