Alaska to fine BP for spill
An investigation by BP and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation into the spill in the Prudhoe Bay oil field has not finished, but ADEC commissioner Kurt Fredriksson said the state would be pursuing penalties and fines against BP Exploration (Alaska), which operates the oil field.
A pipeline between two gathering centres leaked between 130,000 and 270,000 gallons of crude over an estimated five-day period before it was discovered on March 2. Gathering centres separate oil from water and other materials that come out of the ground during drilling before shipping the oil down the main trans-Alaska pipeline.
