"Somebody Cheated"

If the consortium that is building the $7 billion, 800-mile Alaska pipeline began pumping through it now, the chances are that the oil would eventually leak all over the tundra and the pristine mountains along the pipeline's path. For some time this possibility has been a matter of quiet but earnest concern among oilmen and federal officials, who are faced with what may be the biggest problem yet to hit the trouble-plagued project. An urgent audit carried out by the eight-company pipeline consortium, which includes Exxon, Atlantic Richfield and British Petroleum, has revealed 3,955 "problem welds" in the pipeline, which is still only half completed. If Washington decides that the trouble is serious enough to require a major inspection and repair job, it could cost the oil companies as much as $60 million and prevent the opening of the vital project on schedule in mid-1977.

The problem was sloppy welding and shoddy inspection--and apparently attempts to cover them up--in a 144-mile stretch of the pipeline between the Yukon River and a point south of Fairbanks. Ketchbaw Industries, a Houston firm, had a subcontract to perform X-ray tests of the welding; those tests had been required to reduce chances of a serious oil spill. Last year a Ketchbaw employee charged that there had been falsification of some tests. The pipeline consortium investigated the charges, decided that they had substance, and brought a suit against Ketchbaw. Ketchbaw denies falsification and has filed a countersuit.

Specifically, the pipeline consortium alleged that about 10% of the 30,800 welds were questionable, and that X rays of 895 were "falsified," inadequate or nonexistent. Yet the consortium says that only 28 of the welds are actually defective and need to be repaired, which might cost up to $10 million but would not delay the pipeline's opening. The companies concede that more than 1,000 welds need further study to see if they pose any environmental danger. To inspect all the welds would postpone the opening of the line for many months.

Recently, oil company executives were summoned to Washington to discuss the great pipeline snafu. Interior officials are blunt about the cause. As one told TIME Correspondent Jerry Hannifin, "Somebody cheated. It's a big mess." Beyond the 28 welds known to be defective, Interior officials are concerned that another 1,750 might fall short of federal standards for the Arctic, where winter temperatures can drop to -- 50DEG F.

What to do about the problem welds? The original requirements for inspection of all welds were unusually stiff. Normally, only 20% of joints are required to be inspected, even in natural gas lines that run through populated areas. But the Ford Administration would find it hard to modify its standards, however tough, in an election year in which environmentalists are vociferous. Relaxing the Alaska pipeline standards, one Interior official concedes, "would be tough. Interior held forth to Congress, to God and everybody that we'd stick with those stipulations."

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