BP left its crucial corrosion monitoring department at Prudhoe Bay without a senior manager or a top engineer in the months leading up to the devastating pipeline leak that left more than 250,000 gallons of oil on the Alaskan tundra.
An internal company audit shows that Richard Woollam was head of BP’s corrosion, inspection and chemicals group until the end of 2004 but that his job was unfilled for at least six months after he left.
The division still has no senior engineer although serious levels of corrosion have led to at least two significant oil spills and the partial shutdown of the entire Prudhoe Bay oilfield in the past six months.
Mr Woollam appeared before a House Committee in Washington on Thursday to answer questions about his role in maintaining the BP pipelines in Alaska. However, in a surprise move that angered committee members, Mr Woollam invoked the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution and refused to answer questions.
Other BP executives later told the committee that Mr Woollam was moved to a non-management job in Houston because he was thought unsuitable for a management post.
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Steve Marshall, president of BP Exploration Alaska, told the hearing that Mr Woollam’s “abrasive nature” may have intimidated workers from raising questions about pipe corrosion.
Mr Marshall refused to link Mr Woollam’s behaviour to what he admitted were “in hindsight” inadequate pipeline maintenance procedures at Prudhoe Bay.
A BP spokesman said: “At no time was our corrosion division without management oversight. The positions that were vacant were filled on an interim basis by existing staff members.”