Several a gallery at the Museum of History and Art in Anchorage, Alaska. A hole has been cut through the insulation and metal to reveal a high-tech, bullet-shaped scraper “pig” inside. It is the equipment that could have prevented the corrosion that has forced BP to shut half its Alaskan oil field – the biggest in north America.
Yet the UK oil giant said it did not believe it necessary to pig its oil transit lines because they were at low risk of corrosion as they carry only crude oil. The exhibit, however, explains that Alyeska Pipeline Services, which is 47 per cent-owned by BP and run by an executive on loan from the company, pushes scraper pigs every two weeks down its 800-mile pipeline that carries crude oil from BP’s oil field across Alaska to be shipped from the state.
