BP well hit by Hurricane Katrina is still leaking

P suffered another blow on Tuesday when it admitted to the Financial Times that oil was still leaking from one of its wells that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina a year ago.

BP estimated that oil has slowly escaped from the leak, located under a platform at its Grand Isle field in the Gulf of Mexico.

It said the leak was dormant for four months before starting again in late May, with the biggest release being about 25 barrels on August 15.

Although the total amount of oil involved is not large, at 93 barrels, the fact that the leak remained unrepaired for so long could renew questions about the safety culture at BP's US operations. In the past two years, BP has suffered an massive oil spill in Alaska and a refinery explosion in Texas that killed 15 people. Grand juries in Texas and Alaska are looking into whether criminal charges should be filed against the UK company.

from the Financial Times via MSNBC