Alaskan pipeline disaster is imminent according to allegations

The company that operates the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) has been accused of operating without adequate attention to safety. Six senior Alyeska employees allege that a disaster on a greater scale than the Exxon Valdez oil spill is highly likely. BP Amoco owns 50% of Alyeska.


Allegations originating from Alyeska’s own staff were published in the UK daily, the Guardian, on 12 July.

The allegations include:

  • Alyeska’s quality assurance programme is being deliberately undermined by middle management
  • The company operates under “a culture of harassment, intimidation, retaliation and discrimination”.
  • Alyeska executive management ensured that critical audit reports of TAPS safety and quality assurance compliance were not issued.
  • Alyeska executive management instructed middle management to “disregard and/or circumvent” compliance manuals and codes of conduct”.
  • Maintenance and inspection records before 1996 are lost and audit results were falsified to hide the fact.
  • Alyeska executive management has failed to alert government regulators to problems of poor record keeping.

A spokesperson for BP Amoco told edie that the company expects Alyeska to respond to all the allegations contained in a letter sent by the six Alyeska employees to BP Amoco CEO Sir John Browne and three US congressmen.

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