Consequences
BP reported to the media that an estimated volume of around 267,000 US gallons (1,010,000 L) of oil was spilled. Soon after the discovery of the leak, the US Department of Transportation ordered BP to test its pipelines using an internal probe called a smart pig. Some of these lines had not been smart-pigged since 1992. BP came up with an Action Plan which was outlined in a letter sent to Thomas Barrett, administrator for pipeline safety for Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). BP’s Steve Marshall detailed measures for pigging or removing oil residue from the pipeline and for various draining and dismantling procedures.
After the March leak the Transportation Department ordered BP to run smart pig inspections of all the suspect oil lines by June, but the company missed the deadline. More than a month later BP sent a smart pig through its eastern pipelines, detecting extensive corrosion at several places and another small spill. Soon after that BP began temporary production shut down of the eastern side, citing the discovery of "unexpectedly severe corrosion". This reduced the per day production from 400,000 barrels (64,000 m3) to 200,000 barrels (32,000 m3). This amounted to reduction in domestic oil supply by 8% at that time.
In October 2007, BP was fined US$20 million for the Prudhoe Bay oil spills. BP paid a US$12 million federal criminal fine, US$4 million in criminal restitution to the state, and US$4 million for Arctic research. BP's local subsidiary, BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., was placed on probation for three years.
Read more about this topic: Prudhoe Bay Oil Spill
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