BP's Alaskan oilfield hit by another accident

BP, the UK oil group, said yesterday it had suffered another accident at its troubled Alaskan oilfield, when a pressure surgejolted an above-ground pipeline off its steel mount and on to the delicate tundra.

The accident came as BP was attempting to ramp up production.

It had been drastically reduced after the discovery of severe corrosion had forced the company to shut half of Prudhoe Bay, North America's largest oilfield, just over a week ago.

In starting up a section of the field that had been cleared to operate after being closed for routine maintenance, a pressure surge jolted the flow line so violently it fell to the ground.

The aluminium casing and insulation appear to have burst open, but BP said there was no visible damage to the pipeline, which is back up on mounts and being tested for "stress damage".

The accident will bring further embarrassment to BP, which has been under heightened scrutiny since the biggest ever spill at Prudhoe Bay in March. Since then, regulators have forced BP to perform high-tech tests, which have uncovered severe corrosion in oil transit lines and led the company to shut half the 400,000-barrel-per-day field.

Meanwhile, shareholders have filed a suit against BP executives and board members, including chief executive Lord Browne, whom it charges took no steps to improve the 30-year-old pipelines, despite becoming aware of corrosion years ago.

BP does not comment on pending litigation. But Ronnie Chappell, BP spokesman, has said the company had a $72million (€56 million) per year corrosion inspection programme it had believed was adequate.

"We now know that was not the case," Mr Chappell said.

Shareholders are seeking unspecified monetary damages.

"Despite their awareness of the dangerous effect of the corrosion in the pipeline, the defendants repeatedly failed to fund the work necessary to correct the problem, opting instead to squeeze out every last penny in current profits - $7.3 billion last quarter - at the expense of properly and safely maintaining the pipeline and the company's future profitability," the lawsuit, filed in New York, said.