US sues BP over Prudhoe Bay oil spill

The Department of Justice, Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Department said they were now seeking civil penalties from the company "up to the maximum amount authorised by law".

In November 2007, the BP unit pleaded guilty to criminal negligence in discharging the oil and paid $20m (£13.9m) in fines to settle to criminal case.

The civil federal complaint now filed at the District Court in Anchorage accuses the subsidiary of failing to prevent the leakage of 200,000 gallons of oil from a corroded pipeline.

It said the company failed "to prepare and implement spill prevention" and take other measures mandated by the Clean Water Act.

The agencies also allege the energy company violated the Clean Air Act by improperly removing asbestos-containing materials from its pipelines.

The complaint by the State of Alaska is seeking penalty fees from BP for violating environmental laws. It also requests compensation for lost state revenues caused by an estimated 35m barrels of lost oil production.

The two oil spills were in March and August 2006. The August spill caused a temporary shutdown of BP operations in the area.

The state lawsuit argues that the two spills and the emergency pipeline replacement work caused by the remedial work "reduced oil production for more than two years".

The lawsuits asks the court to order the BP unit to take all appropriate action to prevent spills in the future, including systemically inspecting its pipelines facilities for corrosion.

The Prudhoe Bay field is the largest in the US, with almost twice as much recoverable oil than the East Texas oil field.

A BP spokesman said: "We have taken significant steps to ensure our operations are safe and reliable.

"Those include building a new $500m system of oil transit line at Prudhoe Bay. We have no comment on the legal issues."