NEW YORK - BP Plc's pipeline monitoring system exceeded regulatory requirements prior to a pipeline rupture and oil spill in Alaska and the company believes it will not be held criminally liable for the accident, Chief Executive John Browne told Reuters.
Workers on March 2 discovered that at a BP pipeline had leaked at least 200,000 gallons of crude oil, the largest spill ever on Alaska's North Slope, prompting the British company to revamp its safety standards. "We had a world-class corrosion monitoring and spill detection system, much better than required by regulation. It worked, it continued to work, but there was an event," Browne said in an interview late Thursday. "We are now responding by making standards even higher than those mandated anywhere in the world," he added.
The spill came less than a year after a blast at BP's big refinery in Texas City, Texas, killed 15 people and injured scores more, dealing a blow to its reputation in the United States and prompting a government investigation.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency's criminal investigations arm has convened a federal grand jury to determine whether there is enough evidence to charge BP with a crime over the Alaska spill. BP says it is cooperating with the investigation and, when asked if he thought there was any possibility BP could be held criminally liable for the spill, Browne replied emphatically, "I certainly don't."
EDIT
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/36878/story.htmHey kids! Let's play "Spot The Contradiction"!! Hint: Check in and around Paragraph Two!!
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