Almost all oil production on Alaska's North Slope remains shut down after workers on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system discovered a leak over the weekend. BP, the pipeline company's largest single owner, has called it a "significant event [1]."
BP is no stranger to pipeline problems in Alaska. ProPublica recently reported that a BP maintenance report in October found severe corrosion throughout its own system [2] of pipelines, and workers had complained of "Band-Aid" solutions to long-running maintenance issues.
At the time, BP spokesman Steve Rinehart told us that the company has "an aggressive and comprehensive pipeline inspection and maintenance program," and the 148 pipelines ranked "F" for corrosion were not necessarily a current safety risk. "We will not operate equipment or facilities that we believe are unsafe," he said.
BP's listing of corroded pipes and its documentation of pipeline failures wouldn't have included the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which is operated by Alyeska Pipeline Service—technically a separate company. But as we've noted [3], Alyeska is largely controlled by BP, which owns 47 percent of the company. Other owners include ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Unocal Pipeline, and Koch Alaska Pipeline.
With the exception of the company's current CEO, Alyeska has always taken its top talent on loan from one if its oil company owners, and only once [4] has its CEO come from a company that's not BP, noted AlaskaDispatch. Alyeska's current CEO, Thomas Barrett, took his post [5] on January 1, exactly one week before the most recent spill [6] was detected.
The pipeline system has had a long history of maintenance problems and worker safety complaints. Here's what we reported [2] in November:
Several more close calls [7] on Alaskan pipelines came between September 2008 and November 2009, when three BP gas and oil pipelines on Alaska's North Slope ruptured or clogged, as we've reported.
Prior to this weekend's incident, the most recent closure of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline occurred in May—during the BP oil spill—when "several thousand barrels [8]" of oil spilled from the 800-mile line.
This report was originally published by ProPublica and is republished here with permission.