Vol. 12, No. 7 Week of February 18, 2007
BP PLC is looking into allegations by a longtime oil industry watchdog, including a claim that a company employee substituted water for more expensive chemical agents used to prevent corrosion in its Prudhoe Bay pipelines.
The company ombudsman, retired federal judge Stanley Sporkin, said Feb. 7 he has assembled a team of engineers and attorneys to investigate the allegations raised against BP by longtime industry critic Chuck Hamel.
“We’re going to do a very solid investigation, I can assure you that,” Sporkin said from his office in Washington, D.C. “I don’t engage in witch hunts. One of my most important priorities is to be absolutely fair to everyone.”
Hamel said the evidence for the allegations comes from an oil field employee, whom he would not name. Hamel said he passed along “hard evidence” of the substitutions to an investigator with the Environmental Protection Agency in Seattle.
The agency is conducting a criminal investigation into BP’s management practices at Prudhoe Bay and could not comment on the information from Hamel.
“During an ongoing criminal investigation, there’s not a lot we can say,” EPA spokesman Mark MacIntyre said.
BP manages the oil field, North America’s largest, on behalf of its fellow owners, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp.
London-based BP created the ombudsman position in September, a month after a leak in poorly maintained pipelines led to the partial shutdown of production at Prudhoe Bay. The shutdown occurred several months after a corroded transit line resulted in the biggest spill in the history of the field. As much as 267,000 gallons of crude leaked.
The ombudsman independently investigates employee and public complaints regarding BP and shares the results with managers.
“Whenever issues are raised by employees or folks like Mr. Hamel, we always look into them,” said BP spokesman Daren Beaudo. “We take these issues very seriously.”
Sporkin said it is up to the company to decide whether to publicize the results of the investigation.
Hamel is a former shipping broker from Virginia who frequently publicizes information from whistleblowing employees in Alaska’s oil industry.
—The Associated Press
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This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
