WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- A decision to disband a BP safety oversight board is a risky move for the company's Alaska operations, a U.S. congressional leader claims.
British energy company BP said it may terminate a safety watchdog's office set up in the wake of a deadly explosion at one of its Texas oil refineries in 2005. The company's move comes after it created an internal safety board in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico accident that killed 11 workers and dumped million of barrels of oil into the ocean.
The office is meant to provide employees and contractors with BP an avenue to raise safety concerns to a third party.
Scott Schloegel, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who leads a House committee on oversight, frowned on the BP decision.
"The ombudsman's office has been invaluable in allowing whistle-blowers to raise issues without fear of reprisal and intimidation. If you do away with the office, you will push these concerns underground," he told London's Guardian newspaper.
More than half of the concerns raised to the panel related to BP's operations at the North Slope in Alaska. Around 5,000 barrels of oil spilled from a BP pipeline in Alaska in 2006.
