14th Feb 2014 06:58
LONDON (Alliance News) - A US appeals court on Thursday allowed certain shareholders to proceed with some securities claims against BP PLC, following statements made during a 2006 oil spill in Alaska, according to Reuters Friday.
The ruling from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco comes after a shareholders class action against BP in 2008 which was dismissed by a lower court judge in Seattle.
In March 2006, as much as 200,000 gallons of oil spilled from a pipeline held by BP onto the Alaskan tundra and BP-Alaska eventually pleaded guilty to negligent discharge of oil, paying USD20 million to settle state and federal claims.
"Despite BP's public statements suggesting that the spill was an anomaly, a second leak was discovered five months later in a different BP oil transit line in the region," the court wrote. "As a result, the company temporarily shut down regional operations."
The shareholders claimed that BP made knowingly false statements about the event and the 9th Circuit on Thursday agreed with the claims, stating that there was enough evidence to warrant litigation.
"In this case, facts alleged in the complaint support the conclusion that BP had been aware of corrosive conditions for over a decade, and yet chose not to address them," the court wrote.
A spokeswoman for BP Alaska declined to immediately comment to Reuters, but said the company had made "measurable improvements" to safety and reliability since 2006 and had "significantly increased spending on corrosion monitoring and prevention."
http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/02/14/bp-spill-ruling-idINL2N0LI1RA20140214
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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