When you feel sticker shock at the pump next fill-up, remember there is blame to go around. Oil prices jumped after BP announced that it was shutting down an Alaskan field that produces 8 percent of U.S. crude. The shut-down is necessary to repair a badly corroded pipeline.

How did BP allow a pipeline in the critical Prudhoe Bay field — the nation’s largest — to deteriorate? Why was it only after an oil spill in March that U.S. regulators ordered BP to inspect the pipeline using a technique that should have been routine?

Those are critical questions at a time when world oil supplies are tight and Mideast oil supplies could be disrupted by political turmoil. Oil companies operating in the United States shouldn’t be skimping on maintenance, and U.S. Transportation Department regulators need to be more vigilant.

BP faces a grand jury investigation for an earlier Alaska oil spill, accusations that it manipulated the propane market and a Texas refinery explosion that killed 15 workers last year.

The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting a criminal investigation into the March oil spill. That spill was caused by corrosion in a pipeline that hadn’t been inspected by a device called “smart pig” in seven years. Regulators say such inspections, which detect weak pipe areas, should be done every five years. The pipeline section now closed by BP hadn’t been inspected in 14 years; corroded areas and a small leak were found.

BP took in $19.6 billion in profits last year, a 50 percent increase in two years. Other oil companies had similar gains. Certainly, BP can afford to maintain its oil-production infrastructure to meet safety standards. Transportation regulators shouldn’t be reluctant to fine a company whose apparent negligence threatens the environment and will cost U.S. consumers.