Uncovered documents may be trouble for oil company.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: Up front: news, trends & analysis - Texas-New Mexico Pipeline Co

In late November 2003, 190 boxes of documents covered in burlap bags were uncovered 45 feet below ground near a pipeline in the New Mexico desert. The documents, along with 100 computer disks, were covered with mold and mildew and have been sent to a Fort Worth company to be cleaned and, possibly, restored.

But what they may reveal could put the Texas-New Mexico Pipeline Co., a Shell Oil subsidiary, in hot water. The documents allegedly contain information about the operation of the pipeline and environmental damage caused by an oil spill in the early 1990s. Certain assets of the pipeline company were sold to Enron Corp. in 1999 and are now owned by Houston-based EOTT Energy, formerly an Enron affiliate. The documents, found after an eyewitness disclosed that he had seen boxes of documents being buried in 1999, just before the company was sold to EOTT, have been confirmed to be thousands of pages of information that was missing from the Texas New Mexico Pipeline Co.'s archives. An EOTT spokesperson told the media the boxes contain information about pipeline operations, maintenance, environmental data, and financial, accounting, and personnel records.

Residents of Midland, Texas, filed suit against EOTT in 2001, claiming that their well water was contaminated...