BP 'fell short' on pipeline, execs admit

[uscitizen]

BP 'fell short' on pipeline, execs admit
Malone calls operating failures 'unacceptable', Woollam pleads Fifth', as execs grilled over Prudhoe Bay.
By Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com staff writer
September 7 2006: 1:49 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- BP's top U.S. executives told lawmakers Thursday that the company stumbled by failing to prevent a major Alaskan pipeline from getting crippled by corrosion.

At the hearing, a former BP official responsible for monitoring pipeline corrosion invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to the panel's questions about the problems that led to the partial shutdown of the nation's largest oilfield.
bob_malone.03.jpg
Bob Malone, U.S. operations chief for BP

"BP's operating failures are unacceptable," BP America Chairman Bob Malone told members of a House panel. "They have fallen short of what the American people expect of BP and they have fallen short of what we expect of ourselves."

For complete story goto:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/07/news/companies/bp/index.htm

 

[toby]

That is bad. But there is no law against being a bad businessman. And there goes those huge profits. Are you happy now? LOL

 

[Damocles]

There must have been a law broken, else the 5th would not apply.

 

[uscitizen]

I think they are being sued by customers that did not get shipments of oil. also an oil spill happened because of the corrosion.

 

[TRGLDTE]

There must have been a law broken, else the 5th would not apply.

Not necessarily.

 

[Prakosh]

Not necessarily.

While that may be true in some narrow set of criteria, it is clear that since if as it appears the company or the company's representatives knew of the problem but ignored it for short term profits or worse according to some reports for management performance bonuses, then the probability is that there is indeed some malfeasance here. At the minimum those in charge are guilty of putting their own well-being above that of the stock-holders and I think that somewhere there is the requirement that publicly held companies are supposed to operate in the best interests of the stock-holders, no? Isn't that in fact the law? Certainly the trouble that BP now finds itself in could or should have been forseen, and steps to prevent this happening could and should have been taken, wouldn't that have been unltimately in the best interests of the stock-holders?

 

[Dixie - In Memoriam]

The Fifth applies to incriminating one's self in potential illegality. It doesn't mean a law was broken, only that there might have been, and any testimony would incriminate the person unfairly, if it has.

 

[maineman]

the above post by Dixie is the first thing he has written that I agree with in nearly a year.

 

[uscitizen]

Maine, After I had to agree with 2 things dixie said the other day, I had to go see a shrink. He told me that it was just laws of probabilities, if someone said enough things eventually I would have to agree with something that person said , even if they were wacko.

 

[Damocles]

Either you can incriminate yourself (law was broken) or you cannot. It may be just an "appearance" but something must, in reality, have happened.

I could, right at this moment, testify all day long without once incriminating myself accidentally.