"Hilcorp Energy Co. has a spotty pipeline safety record and refuses to make its financial records public. Can it safeguard the pipeline from climate change?"

"Environmental organizations and pipeline experts continue expressing concerns about a secretive Texas petroleum company with a spotty safety record that acquired the largest share of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline last year as thawing permafrost and flooding linked to climate change threatened the massive oil conduit.

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska voted 4-1 in December 2020 to allow Hilcorp Energy Co. to acquire BP’s Alaska oil and gas assets for $5.6 billion, a transaction described as the biggest Alaskan business deal in a generation. It involved one of the state’s most important pieces of economic infrastructure.

The acquisition, which included the oil giant’s 49 percent share of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), received approval despite hundreds of comments from opponents who said they did not believe Hilcorp had either the expertise or the resources to protect the pipeline from intensifying climate change.

Much of the opposition centered on Hilcorp’s refusal to publicly reveal internal financial documents, which the commission permitted through issuance of a disclosure waiver in the runup to the sale."

David Hasemyer reports for Inside Climate News November 22, 2021. [2]