US congressmen yesterday criticised BP for withholding corrosion documents about its troubled Alaska oilfield and for not forcing the man who led its corrosion programme to co-operate with government investigators.

“It looks like BP is trying to do the right thing in public but it’s fighting like a tiger in private,” said Joe Barton, the highest ranking Republican on the US House Energy and Commerce committee. “This doesn’t look like co-operation to me.”