McClatchy: Official admits BP withheld documents about oil pipeline spill

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http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/17169043.htm

Official admits BP withheld documents about oil pipeline spill
By Kevin Diaz
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - A top BP executive has acknowledged that the company withheld key documents last year from lawmakers who were investigating whether cost-cutting measures were a factor in the pipeline corrosion that caused Alaska's largest onshore oil spill.

In a letter that congressional Democrats disclosed on Wednesday, BP America Chairman and President Robert Malone also said that he was "troubled" by the extent of oilfield workers' frustrations in the period leading up to last year's North Slope oil spill.

Malone, who took over at BP America after the March 2006 spill in the Prudhoe Bay oilfield, said, "We need time to determine how the concerns and frustrations expressed by workers were ultimately resolved."

His letter, dated Monday, was released as leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee agreed to postpone a hearing on the Alaska oil spill until May 16.

Malone asked for more time to prepare for the hearing after facing new questions from committee leaders suggesting that company scrimping might have compromised testing and maintenance that could have prevented the 201,000-gallon spill. Subsequent inspections turned up corrosion in another transit pipeline, leading to a partial shutdown of the field in August.

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