I listened with dread yesterday morning when they announced on the radio that British Petroleum would be shutting down one of the largest oil fields in the country due to a problem with a corroded section of pipeline.  I have an hour commute everyday and the last year has seen our monthly fill-up bill basically triple so I wasn't happy, but the radio report made it seem like a relative small and easily fixed problem.  Imagine my surprise when it was announced later in the day that BP was replacing 73% of its 22 mile pipeline at Prudhoe Bay! 

73%??  How do you get into a situation where "suddenly" you find out that three fourths of the pipeline you "oversee" is so corroded it has to be replaced?  Wouldn't regular maintenance or diagnotistics catch this sooner or was a decision made not to do anything until too late?   

(via The LeftCoaster)

(Update 8/8/06): If you needed any more bad news about how badly managed BP's Alaska operations are, check out this report from last week about how the DOT demanded BP's safety and maintenance logs after reports of numerous pipeline leaks.  No doubt this and an ongoing EPA and DOJ investigation helped prompt BP to finally do something but it doesn't say much for the folks Congressional Republicans want to turn ANWR over to does it?