BP Blames Bacteria for Big Boo Boo
Category: News Commentary... Oil & Gas...
Posted Friday, September 08, 2006 at 09:33 AM [GMT-6]

Besides being a great name for a band, "Bacteria Poop" is now the semi-official excuse being put forth by oil company officials for the thinning walls of the Prudhoe Bay (Alaska) crude oil gathering system pipelines.

In a Wall Street Journal report on yesterday's Congressional grilling of BP, Plc. officials, the poop theory was floated in front of a righteously hostile group of lawmakers:

BP officials said early tests show that oil-eating bacteria may have contributed to the Alaska pipeline corrosion. Excrement from the bacteria inside the pipes produces an acid that eats through carbon steel.

Steve Marshall, the president of BP Exploration Alaska Inc., acknowledged that the corrosion problem could have been mitigated by more consistent inspection and removal -- or "pigging" -- of sludge that builds up on the inner walls of oil pipelines, providing shelter for the bacteria.

The irony is that those oil-eating bacteria were introduced as a way to make the oilfield operations more environmentally friendly*. Once again, the Law of Unintended Consequences rears its ugly but reliable head to bite the needlessly careless on their sensitive parts.

BP's not exactly at the top of my Most Favored list at the moment. We own far too much of its stock to find any humor in its Keystone Kop-ish descent from what was once an fine example of a well-managed, properly British corporation. There's probably not much that I'd normally find in common with a Democrat congresswoman, but I have to agree with Rep. DeGette in one area:

Rep. Diana DeGette (D., Colo.) said she was especially disappointed in BP, since it professes in advertising to pride itself on protecting the environment. "I applaud BP for trying to move beyond petroleum, but maybe it should start by sticking to the basics and begin to focus on rudimentary pipe maintenance."

This was a rather slick dig at BP for its "Beyond Petroleum" marketing campaign, which in itself is a stroke of genius -- but only if the company actually has the chops to rock it. It's becoming increasingly evident that it doesn't.

*Update: I don't mean to leave the impression that all such bacteria are intentionally introduced into oilfield operations. Some is naturally occurring. Here's an article that explains a bit more about the science behind this issue.

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So, it was the ENVIRONMENT ... and not us whacko ENVIRONMENT-alists ... that's the cause of all the trouble, this time around ... THAT's something of a change on the usual spin ...

Posted by: Jeff at September 8, 2006 11:56 AM
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