Congressmen cite ’significant’ events in BP’s Alaska operations before Gulf of Mexico spill

Congressmen cite ’significant’ BP issues in Alaska

JUNEAU, Alaska — Two congressmen raised concerns about BP PLC’s operations on Alaska’s North Slope months before an oil rig that BP was operating exploded and spewed oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Reps. Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak cited at least four “significant” incidents in Alaska in 2008 and 2009, including a pressure valve problem they said could have caused an explosion.

In a January letter to the president of BP Exploration Alaska, the congressmen also referred to “a number of personnel incidents involving serious injury or death” and questioned whether proposed BP budget cuts might threaten the company’s ability to maintain safe operations.

A spokesman for BP Alaska, Steve Rinehart, refused to address each incident Wednesday, saying instead that events described in the letter were reported to the appropriate regulatory agencies.

The letter, which was reported Wednesday by the website ProPublica, gave BP a Jan. 29 deadline to respond to questions from the House Energy and Commerce Committee about its North Slope operations. So far, that response has not been made public.

A spokeswoman for Stupak, D-Mich., said Wednesday that staff were still going through the company’s responses and that it would be premature for him to comment now. Efforts to reach Waxman, D-Calif., weren’t successful.

BP’s work in Alaska has drawn attention since 2006, when 200,000 gallons of oil spilled at Prudhoe Bay. Investigators blamed the spill — the North Slope’s biggest — on corrosion, and BP was eventually ordered to pay $20 million in fines and restitution.

Authorities are investigating the cause of at least one of the more recent incidents: In November, a line carrying what the state described as a mixture of oil, water and natural gas ruptured, releasing about 46,000 gallons of oily gunk onto the tundra.

State officials were aware of — and say they’ve been following up with BP Alaska on — the other three. They had the potential not only to be dangerous, but in the case of at least one, to have shut down the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System for an extended period, said Allison Iversen, coordinator for Alaska’s Petroleum Systems Integrity Office.

The pipeline supplies about 700,000 barrels of oil a day, or more than a quarter of the country’s daily use, to the Lower 48, according to the congressmen’s letter. It’s also the conduit for Alaska’s economic lifeblood.

One incident, in January 2009, temporarily shut down the line. In a notice of violation issued to BP Alaska this year, the state Department of Environmental Conservation alleged the release of excess emissions and potentially hazardous air pollutants that prompted the evacuation of a work area. A department spokeswoman declined comment on the disposition of that case, citing confidentiality surrounding enforcement actions.

Iversen and Mike Engblom-Bradley, a quality assurance specialist in the integrity office, said BP Alaska and the industry generally have seemed to take the incidents seriously. Engblom-Bradley said he’s seen more information-sharing between BP and ConocoPhillips, another major North Slope player, on issues related to corrosion, for example.

Iversen said the common thread to the incidents she’s been involved in have been procedures. For example, whether proper procedures have been in place.

“Sometimes,” she said, “the answer has been ‘no.’ There may not have even been any procedures in place that pertain to a specific incident.”

Engblom-Bradley said BP has been working to implement a systems operations plan, though he said he doesn’t expect “dramatic change” until several years after the plan is fully in place, judging from a similar prior effort by Exxon Mobil Corp.

Kevin Banks, director of the Department of Natural Resources’ oil and gas division, said he’s noticed “some” improvement in recent years in BP’s controls and the way in which it informs employees about operating procedures.

“But the events in the Gulf of Mexico are pretty dramatic and awful, to say the least,” Banks said. While it’s not clear what impact, if any, the disaster will have on BP’s Alaska operations going forward, “right now, we are watching them pretty carefully, anyway.”

Separately, the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries announced Wednesday that it had fined the BP Cherry Point refinery near Blaine — the largest refinery in that state — $69,200 for 13 safety violations.