A really dumb question that may have been asked before

[Orrex]

:rant:

BP sat on its ass, maintenance-wise, while enjoying record-breaking profits along with the rest of the big oil companies. These profits were generated even as (dare I say because) crudeoil prices raced toward the stratosphere.

So now that 16 miles of pipeline have to be replaced, squeezing the supply of crude and bumping prices still higher, why the fuck doesn't BP dip into its hearty profits and pay for some goddamned upkeep? When my car breaks down, I don't get to tell my boss to pay me more--the cost of repairs has to come out of my own profits, such as they are.

I wouldn't go so far as to suggest that BP knowingly allowed its pipeline to deterioriate, but even if they were ignorant of it, it seems to me that they are culpably ignorant and should be held accountable by some force more direct than the almighty market. Is there no guideline for the performance of routine maintenance and inspection?

Will any heads roll as a result of this? Well, I expect that a few lower echelon schlubs in Alaska will face some lean times, but surely no executive will suffer any consequences.

And the bigger question in my mind is this: how many other oil companies are sitting on similarly disastrous maintenance failures?

[MisoWeaver]

1. That's a good question.

[unpossibles]

2. will heads roll?

more likely raises and promotions will happen. And toasts over champagne

[tandot]

3. I was asking myself the same questions. However, with oil-men in charge of

the White House, why should filthy rich oil corporations give a f*ck? They milk the poor and middle class even more for the damage they have caused through their negligence. The cost of the repair will be covered by higher gas prices and our tax money, through tax breaks and subsidies.

According to Republicans, welfare for the needy, helpless, and poor is bad. Welfare for filthy rich people and corporations is just fine.

[cynatnite]

4. And they all want to drill ANWR...

They're such greedy bastards...they don't care until they get caught.

[MadHound]

5. Why should it?

It has no incentive to. After all, when you don't perform regular maintenence work, you're saving money and pumping up profits. When your pipeline collapses, the price of oil goes up on the other wells you're drilling. Therefore it is a win-win situation for BP.

[kenny blankenship]

6. I'll go so far as to suggest they knowingly allowed their pipeline to rot

Bp was a profitable company before the recent period of record breaking profits for the oil industry.
You don't change the oil in your car's engine, there will be damage in 5,000 miles of operation, guaranteed, if you use the normal lubricating oil. You change the oil every 3,000 miles for a reason.
The pipeline had a maintenance schedule for a reason also. Oil companies are not like schmoe car owners that don't know what will happen at 4,000 miles w/o oil change, or 5k miles, 6k miles, 7k miles... Oil companies are engineering companies who source parts like pipeline equipment from other engineering companies and who do their own metallurgical research on their pumps and pipes. They have shelves full of notebooks of data about their pipes and what kind of maintenance needs to be done on a scheduled basis--their own data and data from engineering firms they contract with. That schedule of maintenance was being neglected. It might slip a carowner's mind if they are non-technical people and not very bright to change the oil in their car on schedule. That car owner may be surprised when his car burns up a bearing or blows a head gasket or sucks down an intake valve as a consequence of failure to do regular maintenance. It does not "just slip" an oil company's mind to do scheduled maintenance on their physical plant--particularly the equipment through which all the revenue generating oil from a given field flows. That oil company isn't going to be surprised in the same way that the ditzy car owner was that the hardware on which they depend for their income has failed due to lack of maintenance.
Somebody somewhere said, "We are going to let this plant deteriorate until failure, saving dough on maintenance and then watch what happens."