The fall-out from BP’s Alaskan fiasco continues. The company’s shareholders have now filed a lawsuit against top executives accusing them of letting investors down by failing to repair the pipeline that forced the shutdown of part of Prudhoe Bay.
The lawsuit filed earlier this week in Manhattan is targeted at board members and directors including CEO John Browne and Chief Financial Officer Bryon Grote. It says they “allowed one of BP’s prized assets” – the Prudhoe Bay oil field – to decay to the point that it was forced to shut operations. “Defendants became aware of the problem of corrosion in the pipeline years ago, but took no substantial steps to remedy the situation,” the lawsuit argues.
As a result the company now faces costs of hundreds of million of dollars in damage, lost earnings and “the wrath of customers nationwide who are facing ever higher gasoline prices at the pump,” says the suit. It seeks unspecified monetary damages.
They are the oil company, they’ll get a pass.