Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Blame Game. It’s Back!

BP Global has charged that its subcontractor, Halliburton Energy Services, destroyed evidence of shoddy cement work on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. BP claims the “Mocondo Blowout” that caused last year’s catastrophic Gulf oil spill was caused by Halliburton’s substandard work.

More:

“BP says Halliburton ‘intentionally destroyed evidence’ after Gulf oil spill,” Vivian Kuo, CNN

 “BP says Halliburton destroyed Gulf spill evidence,” Reuters via Chicago Tribune

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Oil Spill Commission Blames Everyone

The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling released a sneak preview of its report Wednesday. Verdict: “systemic failure” by all parties involved, including government regulators. The Commission says this kind of thing could happen again.

Commission Establishes Oil Spill Blame

Contractor Halliburton knew the cement it used to seal the BP Deepwater oil rig was faulty but used it anyway, according to a report released by a federal commision. “Halliburton and BP both had results in March showing that a very similar foam slurry design to the one actually pumped at the Macondo well would be unstable, but neither acted upon that data,” according to investigators.

Thomas Roth, Halliburton’s vice-president of cementing, recently stated that his company’s tests showed the materials had “good stability,” a claim contradicted by BP officials.

Just who is to blame for the disaster?

BP Changes Caps

Update: The cap is ON.

BP is replacing the old cap on its gushing Gulf oil well. Removing the old cap has allowed crude oil to gush unrestrained into the Gulf of Mexico, some 60,000 barrels per day.

The new cap will have an improved, snug fit, and should capture more crude. It has been manufactured by Cameron, the company that also made the blowout prevention valves (BOPs) on the Deepwater Horizon.  The cause of the failure of the Deepwater’s BOPs has yet to be determined.

  

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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.

 

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BP Cooks!

Keep your skillet good and greasy with BP. The oil giant has recipes for disaster mighty good eatin.’ Read “The BP ‘I Hate to Clean Up’ Cookbook” by Patricia Marx in The New Yorker.

 

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GOP-BP

Many small-government Republicans are now screaming for massive federal involvement in Gulf oil spill mitigation. These GOP free-market fundamentalists and devout deregulators are currently calling for the scalps of BP’s CEO and board members.

Not so Congressman Joe Barton (R, TX-6). He apologized to BP’s CEO for the U.S. Government’s “shakedown” of the multinational oil corporation, the Administration’s insistence on a $20 billion escrow account to address claims by Gulf fishermen and others whose incomes are affected by BP’s blundering oil spill. Mr. Bolton has received an annual average of $80,000 in campaign donations from oil companies over two decades. This is an election year, and Mr. Bolton has racked up $100,000 in oil company contributions so far.

Republican leaders conducted a shakedown of their own, telling Joe Barton to retract his statement if he wanted to keep his post as ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Grudgingly, he did.

PB Funds University Oil Spill Research

BP is funding a half-billion dollar Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GRI). $25 million has just been awarded to study the ecological interactions of oil and dispersant. First round funding has gone to Louisiana State University ($5 million), the University of South Florida’s Florida Institute of Oceanography ($10 million)  and the Northern Gulf Institute consortium ($10 million).

 

Hat tip: InsideHigherEd.com

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Spill Spoof Aids Gulf Recovery

@bpglobalpr, a parody BP public relations Twitter account, has  155,678 followers; the real BP Twitter account has 13,925. The anonymous spoofer has raised $10,000 towards Gulf restoration by selling T-shirts; BP’s repair, cleanup, compensation, and PR efforts have earned nothing but scorn.

 

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BP Caps Oil Well

BP cut a pipe 5000 feet below the Gulf of Mexico and put a cap on the valve that has been leaking oil for the past month. “Cap” sounds much less formal than the Top Hat BP tried to use a few weeks ago.

Some oil is being recovered, but crude oil is still gushing into the water, fouling  sea life, birds, and the shores of four states. The rate of the oil spill may have been slowed, but estimates vary. To get an idea of the scope of this ongoing disaster, use the PBS Oil Spill Ticker.

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