ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Alaska regulators blame sloppiness by BP for a break last year in a natural gas pipeline in the Prudhoe Bay field.
The state Petroleum Systems Integrity Office, founded after a massive leak from a BP pipeline in 2006, released a three-page preliminary report, the Anchorage Daily News said.
No one was injured when the gas pipeline blew in September. But the report suggested that was good luck, not good management with pieces of pipe flying through the air and falling short of employees working nearby, the Daily News said.
The report blamed the break on corrosion at a point where BP employees removed some insulation to allow them to check on welds underneath. They did not replace the insulation.
A 2003 inspection missed the resulting corrosion because that section of pipe was buried by snow, the report said.
Corrosion in the aging system of pipes at Prudhoe Bay has become a chronic problem. Cleanup was under way this week of 2,000 gallons of oil and water that leaked last week.
