News Release
U.S. Senators Pete Domenici & Jeff Bingaman

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACTS:   MARNIE FUNK (202) 224-6977
AUGUST 10, 2006 BILL WICKER (202) 224-5243

SENATORS SEEK ANSWERS ON BP PIPELINE
SITUATION IN ALASKA

Seeming Inaction on Maintenance Deemed “Inexcusable”  

 WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman, chairman and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, today issued a letter to federal regulators requesting information on oversight of the failing petroleum pipelines serving Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

 The Senators are asking Thomas J. Barrett, administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) at the U.S. Department of Transportation, to provide information related to shutdown of the Prudhoe Bay oil field because of extensive corrosion in major segments of the pipeline held by British Petroleum (BP) Exploration Alaska Inc.

 “We are concerned by reports of significant pipeline corrosion in the Eastern Operating Area of Prudhoe Bay, as well as previously known corrosion in the Western Operating Area, as discovered in the March 2006 spill of approximately 5,000 barrels of oil,” the Senators wrote Barrett.  “Additionally, early reports of the discovery of 16 anomalies at 12 locations in a three-mile area of the Eastern Area are distressing, and, if true, inexcusable.”

 Domenici and Bingaman recommended a full investigation into the initial reports that BP failed to use internal inspection devices, so-called smart pigs, in the Eastern Area in a timely manner.

 “It seems to us that this failure should not have happened.  Therefore, we ask what should have been done to prevent this from happening and what should be done to prevent it from happening in the future,” the Senators wrote.

 “We urge your continued attention to this issue and request that you keep us fully apprised of the Prudhoe Bay situation.  We will continue to monitor this situation, and, if necessary, we will take appropriate action,” they concluded.

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