BP Unit Pleads Guilty in Oil Spill Settlement

by David Shurtleff, NPR

The Alaska subsidiary of oil company BP PLC has pleaded guilty to a federal environmental crime for failing to prevent a crude oil spill. The guilty plea by BP Exploration Alaska Inc. is part of a settlement over a 200,000-gallon pipeline spill at the Prudhoe Bay field in March 2006.

That spill was the largest ever in the vast, oil-rich region of Arctic Alaska known as the North Slope.

David Shurtleff reports from Alaska Public Radio.

Broadcast Dates

• Morning Edition, November 30, 2007