The document advised BP's management in Alaska to immediately intervene in order to reduce the 16-plus hour work shifts, and if that did not happen, an explanation must be given to employees, BP's corporate officials, Congress and others for why BP Alaska is willing to accept the "current condition of risk for a number of years until accelerated hiring has an eventual impact."
"Allowing the continuation of the 16-plus hour work shifts would be seen by internal and external stakeholders as putting production ahead of safety," the document said.
In a letter dated February 3, 2010, prepared for BP Alaska President John Minge, BP's Ombudsman, former CIA General Counsel and retired judge Stanley Sporkin, said his office has been "engaged in oversight of the overtime and staffing issues that continue to be raised by employees."
"As a result of these concerns, [BP Alaska] changed its overtime policies to limit the number of hours of overtime that can be worked continuously," said Sporkin's letter, which was prepared for Minge in response to recent congressional inquiries about Prudhoe Bay. "In addition, it is taking a more comprehensive approach to hiring and training technicians and operators so that there is more availability of personnel and less need for overtime by the current workforce. These changes will take a while to implement."
Lingering Safety Issue
Back in 2001, Kovac and several other BP employees and management officials prepared an Operations Integrity Review report identifying safety and maintenance issues the company needed to address to protect the welfare of its workers. One of the items employees identified that was in dire need of upgrading was the fire and gas systems at the North Slope facilities, a project estimated to cost about $1 billion that should have been completed, depending on who you speak to, by 2003 or 2005.
After the massive oil spills in March and August 2006, many of the same employees, along with a top BP Prudhoe Bay official, conducted a re-review of the 2001 report to determine what projects BP still needed to tackle. Nearly a decade later, the fire and gas systems have yet to be fully upgraded, largely due to budget cuts, a fact that Rinehart denies.
According to a document prepared for the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this year describing the status of BP's Fire and Gas Renewal Program, BP admitted that the project "did not proceed as quickly as we had anticipated," but the company claims the "slower pace did not reflect a change in our level of commitment, but rather was a conscientious adjustment during 2008 that we undertook for technical reasons as we learned more about the scale and complexities of the project."
BP claims it invested twice as much money in 2009
than it did in 2008 - $49 million - and, as of February, was set to
spend another $60 million on the project. But while that may sound like
quite a bit of money, it means that, if spending at that pace continues,
it will take BP more than a decade to complete the upgrades - twenty
years after employees identified it as a major safety issue.
BP denied to Congress that budget cuts have or will play a part in 2010.
But that was before the disaster in the Gulf.
"You asked us what impact any proposed 'budget cuts' would have on fire and gas upgrade plans, and the answer is simple: we have not reduced our financial commitment for the fire and gas upgrade plan because of 'budget cuts,'" the document said. "The 2008 re-assessment described above was focused on technical considerations, not financial concerns." Kovac said the fact that BP performed a "reassessment in 2008 is a self-indictment."
"They were supposed to do something years ago," he said. "And seven years pass and you still haven't finished. When is the issue going to be resolved? It's a very simple question. How many facilities are obsolete that need fire and prevention system upgrades? This is not that complicated. How many? BP won't say."
"First, understand the facilities are safe, and the fire and gas detection/alarm systems are functional," said Rinehart, the BP Alaska spokesman. "The upgrade is an ongoing, substantial project; more than $90 million invested since 2006. We have not reduced our work plan or commitment to this project as a result of any budget pressures. The work is being carefully staged. Other work has been done at the processing centers, and several more projects are being done this year, while planning continues looking ahead."
Regarding Rinehart's statement that BP Alaska has spent $90 million since 2006, a senior BP official said, "it's not terribly remarkable."
"Do the math on a per year spend," he said. "There's no mention of total potential spend as well as completion year."
Mischaracterizing the Facts
Since the 2006 oil spills, Congress has stepped up its oversight of BP, mainly in the form of writing letters to company officials, requesting documents about the status of various projects, and inquiring about other matters brought to the attention of lawmakers by employees working at Prudhoe Bay.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
