Alaska seeks BP oil-spill documents

JUNEAU, Alaska, July 31 (UPI) -- Alaska regulators have hit BP PLC with a demand for company records related to oil spills that led the company to shut down part of its Prudhoe Bay oil field.

A state Department of Environmental Conservation subpoena seeks a wide array of financial records, memos, letters, pipe samples and other material dating from as far back as 1990, the Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News reported.

The civil subpoena builds on at least two earlier state subpoenas the state served BP to find out how the oil company let its pipelines become so corroded it would have to shut down the oil field, which had produced 400,000 barrels a day.

The shutdown led to an 8 percent drop in U.S. oil production.

Alaska's attorney general said the state wanted not only to punish BP for leaks from the corroded pipelines but possibly to seek damages for lost oil tax or royalty revenues, the newspaper said.

Alaska, which gets most of its revenue from taxing the oil industry, lost as much as $6.4 million a day during the shutdown, officials said.

BP operates Prudhoe Bay, which it owns with ConocoPhillips Co., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp.