OIL & GAS UPDATE (thru July 12 '99)
WHISTLEBLOWERS WARN OF ALASKA OIL DISASTER
Sunday July 11, 9:55 pm Eastern Time
LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) - Six senior employees of an Alaskan oil pipeline company have warned that a far worse ecological disaster than the Exxon Valdez catastrophe 10 years ago could occur at any time, the Guardian reported on Monday.
The newspaper said the whistleblowers from the Alyeska company running the 800-mile (1,280 km) trans-Alaska pipeline had written to BP Amoco (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BPA.L) and three U.S. Congressmen saying there was an imminent threat to human life and the environment.
A BP Amoco spokeswoman told Reuters: ''I cannot comment on it because we have not had any letter.''
The Guardian said the letter from the six, whom it did not identify, contained evidence of compliance failures and other serious charges.
The whistleblowers feared a possible rupture of the ageing pipeline or an explosion at the Valdez oil tanker terminal, the newspaper said.
''It's not a matter of if it is going to happen, it's when it is going to happen,'' it quoted one of them as saying.
BP Amoco owns 50 percent of Alyeska, which operates both installations on its behalf.
The Guardian said the whistleblowers, all senior employees on the 22-year-old Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, had provided it with evidence of compliance failures and other charges.
On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck a reef in Prince William Sound that ripped open its hull, spilling 11 million gallons of oil into one of the world's most bountiful ecosystems.
The spill killed more wildlife than any other environmental disaster.
At least 3,500 sea otters, 200 harbour seals, 14 killer whales and 350,000 birds died. It devastated fish populations and coated 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of shoreline.
In October 1991, a week before the start of jury selection, Exxon (NYSE:XON - news) agreed to pay a record settlement of $1.1 billion, 97 percent of which went toward clean-up and restoration efforts.
Commercial fishing, one of Alaska's biggest and most vital industries, has suffered in Prince William Sound since the spill due the decline in fish populations.
Bob Malone, president of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co, told the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce on March 8 that the company had made dramatic reforms in its oil spill prevention and response programmes.
''We're not the company that we were 10 years ago,'' he said.
Alyeska was criticised for an inadequate and disorganised response to the Exxon Valdez grounding.
It is owned by seven oil companies, the major ones being BP Amoco, Exxon and Atlantic Richfield (NYSE:ARC - news). Phillips Petroleum (NYSE:P - news), Mobil (NYSE:MOB - news), Unocal (NYSE:UCL - news) and Amerada Hess (NYSE:AHC - news) own minor shares.
biz.yahoo.com
We joked when building it [largest pipeline in US - 30" heavy crude line, from CA to TX over Rockies] that if it shut down, we would have the longest liqorish stick in the world, because the oil had to be heated to 180 degrees to flow and if it shut down and cooled, it would solidify and never be usable again.
Message 9376450
BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON PIPELINE EXPLOSION
Breakdowns in the Olympic Pipe Line Co. computer system just before and during last month's deadly accident in Bellingham have so alarmed federal regulators that they have issued a nationwide warning. The federal Office of Pipeline Safety issued the warning this week to the 2,000 operators of liquid and natural-gas pipelines in the United States. It urged them to make sure that computer systems used to operate and monitor pipelines are working properly ...
Message 10461209
OIL & GAS UPDATE:
Message 10410920
Cheryl
172 Days until 2000
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