BP Partner Balks at Blame — and the Bill

BP sent Anadarko Petroleum a bill for $272 million, a quarter of Gulf oil spill cleanup costs to date. Anadarko is a 25 percent partner in the Deepwater Horizon drilling project. Another 10 percent of the disaster is owned by Japan’s Mitsui, so that company got a $111 million invoice.

Anadarko CEO Jim Hackett issued a statement last month blaming the oil spill on “BP’s reckless decisions and actions,” so expect some resistence from the junior partner. Mitsui merely says it has until July 12th to reply. Corporate and maritime lawyers everywhere are on alert.

Other sources claim oil spill cleanup costs to date exceed $3 billion and may rise to $6 billion. Damages are something else again. BP has established a $20 billion fund to meet preliminary claims.

More:

“BP Wants Partners to Help Shoulder Spill Cost,” John Schwartz, New York Times.

“BP Passes the Buck to Oil Well Partners,” Dana Chivvis, AOL News.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Gulf Oil Spill: International Edition

The Korean-made Deepwater Horizon, owned by a Swiss corporation, was flying a Marshall Islands flag while drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico under contract to British-born BP. It was fitted with a Cameron International blow out preventer (BOP) and serviced by Halliburton, both Houston-based firms. Other partners in the BP oil lease: Japan’s Mitsui and Anadarko Petroleum of Texas.

There is plenty of globalized blame to go around.

See? We Told You So.

Congressional committee hearings Tuesday provided the first overt finger-pointing in the Deepwater oil-spill catastrophe. BP officials blamed their Transocean drilling contractors for the Gulf offshore oil spill; Transocean blamed both BP and service provider Halliburton. Guess what Halliburton did.

See? We told you so.

More:

“BP, Transocean and Halliburton blame each other for Deepwater Horizon spill,” Suzanne Goldenberg, The Gurdian.

“Oil companies trade blame over Gulf of Mexico spill,” Olivier Knox, AFP via Google.

“Oil executives shift blame at Senate hearing,” Steven Mufson and David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post.

“Oil-Spill Hearing Leads to Finger-Pointing,” Sioban Hughes and Corey Boles, Wall Street Journal.

“Oil executives face Congress on spill, shift blame,” Timothy Gardner and Ayesha Rascoe, Reuters via CNN Money.

“Senators Hear a Cascade of Blame for Oil Rig Explosion,” Jim Efstathiou Jr., Businesweek.