Failure to Cap Well; Failure to Cap Liabilities

Transocean, the Swiss corporation that owned and operated the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, tried to limit its Gulf oil spill liability to $27 million, citing a U.S. law from 1851. The Justice Department objected, and lawyers for families of Deepwater victims agree. The oil drilling company changed its position.

Transocean actually made money from the loss of the oil rig, which was insured for $270 million in excess of its actual value. The corporation will  also distribute $1 billion in dividends to its shareholders this year. Families of Transocean employees killed and injured in the Deepwater explosion still await compensation.

 

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BP Sips Away at Oil Spill

BP announced that it has inserted a tube into the seabed pipe that has been gushing crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly a month. The new tube is diverting 1,000 barrels of oil a day into a tanker, according to BP. The blowout is spilling  anywhere from 5.000 to 80,000 barrels into the Gulf each day, so this is colf comfort.

 UPDATE:

BP now says it is reclaiming 2000 barrels a day from the oil spill. What BP has not done: revise the estimated rate of oil spill volume upward, as other observers have.

New directions in BP engineering outlined by Carl Hiaasen (Miami Herald). 

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

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