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Energy giant BP has pleaded guilty to violating a US pollution law over a crude oil pipeline leak which led to an Alaska oil spill.

The US justice department confirmed the guilty plea in a statement, with a judge ordering BP to pay $20 million (£9.7 million) in criminal penalties related to the 200,000-gallon spill at the Prudhoe Bay field in March 2006.

BP will also serve a three-year term of probation over the spill, which was the largest ever to affect Alaska's North Slope and resulted in gallons of crude oil spilling onto the tundra and a nearby frozen lake.

The company, which was fined over a breach of America's clean water legislation, had been accused of failing to notice signs of corrosion inside oil pipes which subsequently leaked.

"This incident provides us all a clear warning of the need to be vigilant with regard to pipeline maintenance and with regard to safety and security of the pipeline and environmental protection," said judge Ralph Beistline, in the statement issued by the US justice authorities yesterday.

"I think we have to put particular emphasis on the need to give high priority to maintenance and maybe a little less priority on profits," he added in the note, quoted by the AFP news agency.

BP was not fined over a second leak at Prudhoe Bay in August 2006, which was quickly discovered and contained – resulting in around 1,000 gallons of oil spilling onto the tundra.

The guilty plea made by BP over the initial leak is part of a settlement the UK-based oil firm has reached with the US government over several probes in the country.

Last month the US department of justice revealed BP was to be fined a total of $370 million (£182 million) by regulators over its environmental record and fraud charges.

In addition to the penalty it must pay over the Prudhoe Bay oil leak, BP has agreed to pay a fine over environmental violations stemming from a fatal explosion at its Texas refinery in March 2005 and a separate fine over claims it committed fraud by conspiring to manipulate the price of propane.

Commenting on the settlement in October, BP America chairman and president Bob Malone said: "In the months and years since these violations occurred, we have made real progress in the areas of process safety performance and risk management."

He added the oversight of BP's trading operations had also been "greatly enhanced".