BP - A hatchet job
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It seems to me that the American administration is doing a hatchet job on BP. Political pundits all say that there is no way the American people (read media) would treat an American company in the same way. It is also in the interests of the American administration to ensure that BP stays financially strong, and if BP can afford to pay dividends, and pay for the clean-up, then it should be allowed to do so. Paying dividends is important to the share price, or does the American administration want to see BP taken over by a Chinese company (only China has the resources for a take-over)?
I am struck by the hypocrisy of the American view that it is all BP's fault when America has always wanted oil and petrol at the cheapest possible price. Deep water drilling will always carry risks, and that is the price you have to pay when you have taken oil from all the easy places on earth. BP is also international, employing many American oil specialists, and if they can't stop the leak then I cannot see who can. The call by the American media for the military to 'take over' is nothing more than laughable. This knee-jerk reaction to something they feel is outside their control is very typical of Americans, and look what mayhem that kind or response has caused over the years.
End of rant.
Bob
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On the contrary; AIG, Lehman Bros., Andersen, Enron and all the rest of the financial screwups received a sound beating, and continue to get the occasional slap in the media. They were American.
Just consider it a slow news day; Americans have lost interest in the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, the volcano isn't big news anymore, no other natural disasters are destroying the Earth for our entertainment...er, 'scuse me - NEWS agencies to blab incessantly about.
That's why BP gets the full focus of the armchair quarterbacks and doomsayers, not because they're not American. I couldn't care less what country BP is based in, it just doesn't change the fact that something bad happened, and continues to happen, that will affect the environment and economy (again) of the Gulf Coast States for decades to come.
While BP may whine about the cost to them, I'm sure they'll get their money back with some cushy tax breaks, subsidies or whatever other form of legalized bribery and corruption that corporations make massive profits under. Meanwhile, Americans and any other Gulf State/Caribbean nation will pay that, the cost of contaminated or inedible seafood, dead zones, lost wildlife and jobs for who knows how long.
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These are interesting and informative articles:
http://www.eoearth.org/article/exxon_valdez_oil_spill
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill
Regards
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Keeping things in perspective
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Is that a Republican spill? If so, then true. They're the "red" color usually, Dem's are the blue. Unless of course you mean the usual Dems/(red)commie/liberal implication. But this is diverging to politics...
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Only when the last tree is cut down, the last river poisoned, the last fish is caught, people will find that you can not eat money. These often quoted words of a prophecy of the Canadian Cree tribe are increasingly becoming a reality.
This disaster will not remain limited to the USA. Flow simulations assume that the oil could be transported far into the North Atlantic. And the oil discharge is not stopped yet. We don't know what will be the final impact of this disaster on the marine fauna and flora and other impacts which could be happen.
The oceans are a part of the largest food supplier for humanity. The oceans bind huge amounts of CO2.
And this will certainly not be the last disaster of this kind. Some days ago I read that in front of the South American coast about 200 Oil pumping stations are in operation.
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drill baby drill! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn2Tyh6b5dE
and now the consequences
http://www.katu.com/news/photos/95866799.html -
@watkins said:
These are interesting and informative articles:
http://www.eoearth.org/article/exxon_valdez_oil_spill
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill
Regards
Yes - it's interesting how the company who actually ran the oil rig - Transocean Ltd, is keeping incredibly quiet. I guess they're glad that the media finds it easiest to focus on BP.
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@unknownuser said:
Yes - it's interesting how the company who actually ran the oil rig - Transocean Ltd, is keeping incredibly quiet. I guess they're glad that the media finds it easiest to focus on BP.
I personally want to know more about the Halliburton connection, also too frigging quiet on that front, Me thinks that the Halliburton is purposely muted as sooo many politicians have invested interests there.
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Agreed.
And another issue I have is that the environmental issues have completely wiped out of the public mind that a lot of regular, hard-working people lost their lives on that rig. I'm not saying oil-soaked pelicans are more or less important, but what about the workers and their families? Is there going to be justice for them or have they already been pressured into signing papers that gave away any hope of compensation and their right to air their grievances publicly if necessary?
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Hatchet Job? So the administration isn't being fair to the international conglomerate that has lied / misled / displayed incompetency since the begining of this monumental disaster. All while defending their intent to pay a large dividend to share holders to try and maintain their stock value. By no means do I intend to support the administration - but BP is and should be on the hook here. The firms working the Deepwater Horizon should be held accountable as well - they were all partners in getting to this point. BP though is front and center as they were the ones responsible fo the well field in the first place. They were the ones who stood in front of the cameras and claimed it was only this small amount originally.......wellll maybe it's about 5 times that amount.......no wait a minute - it's actually about 10-20X what we first said. Their responses are slow and less than effective. When they finally get to "shooting the mud" - we hear that things went OK - but will take longer because we don't have enough mud. Then later when they install the containment system - it's Hooray - we are capturing a big portion of the plume and pumping it to our surface recovery ships......well maybe it's a little less than half of what is flowing, and well we can't really handle any more volume than that with the recovery ships we have in place. All signs of a very competent response.
Meanwhile we are approaching 2 months of flow generating what will undoubtedly be one of the worst environmental disasters the earth has seen. And while americans in the gulf region that are deeply impacted by the disaster are frustrated by the lack of anyone able to help, including the government - they want somebody to DO SOMETHING. The military is the first option we turn to because after Katrina we know the Fed govt. agencies can't get out of their own way let alone mount any type of effective response to anything even approaching the magnitude of this disaster. It is knee jerk to some extent, and as far as being hypocritical - hell yeah we are - so what? That net cast far and wide around the globe on many different levels. And while we americans argue here about what the administration should or shouldn't be doing - I for one have no issue with their approach to BP. And no - I won't be losing sleep at night worrying about their stock price, or if the Chinese will take them over at some point.
End of counter-rant
Dean -
Do you remember Baghdad Bob, Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, who insisted, "Don't believe them, they are nowhere near Baghdad" while Coalition tanks rolled by in the background?" We all laughed at him then, but he seems to be becoming the new standard.
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/06/10/baghdad-bp/
Seems to me BP is doing a hatchet job on themselves well enough.
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Dear bytor,
Were you, or the American people, equally outraged when an American company killed tens of thousands of innocent people, and permanently injured tens of thousands more at Bhopal, India? Your concern, as a people, was completely lacking! Bhopal continues to be an absolute disgrace, and an example of corporate America (and justice) at its worst. Handing everything over to the Indian government was a perfect piece of administrative side stepping. It was a problem caused by an American company, and America should have been the one to fix it. By way of contrast, BP has publicly stated that it will meet all clean up costs, and compensate those that need compensating.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Bhopal,_India
The section entitled 'Aftermath' makes for very interesting reading.
As I said before, BP is an international company, which means it has many American oil engineers working the problem too. Working at 5000 feet is not trivial, and yes, they might have been a bit slow off the mark, and yes, they might have gone for 'traditional solutions' over a more radical approach, but you cannot convince me that they haven't wanted to fix the problem and fix it fast. It is costing them a great deal, and those needing compensation won't get it if BP goes to the wall. It is in America's interest that BP stay a strong company, and while you're at it, you might want to think about your pension fund too as you can be sure that the fund manager has invested in BP.
I remember vividly the almost riot situation in America when the cost of petrol doubled for a while. People were shooting each other at the pumps. Only in America! A country that consumes almost 3 times more oil per day than any other country in the world cannot claim the moral high ground.
Oh, I do like a good discussion, and a bit of a rant!
Bob
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Imagine if all the money that will be paid out on this disaster was used to find alternative energy solutions, I'd predict that the billions and billions would yield a solution to carbon based fuels.
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Nicely put Modelhead, and nicely put Solo.
We just have to learn from our mistakes and not get all nationalistic. This is the sort of shit that ought to stop as it just doesn't help (from the Guardian on Wednesday http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/09/battle-bring-bp-account-oil-spill).
"Earlier this week Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner showed how little respect many on Capitol Hill have for BP. He told TV viewers that the company was essentially lying about the disaster: "Whenever you hear someone with a British accent talking about this on behalf of British Petroleum they are not telling you the truth. That's the bottom-line," Weiner said"
Bob
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Tell me again,how many Americans have died as a result of the oil spill (not the explosion).
Worthwhile comparing their attitude on their back yard environmental pollution to death and destruction on the other side of the globe..... -
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Frankly, I don't think many Americans even know that "BP" stands for British Petroleum. Anyone that makes an anti-Brit based on BP's origins statement is a short-sighted nationalistic fool, and certainly has no a selective memory of the damages done by US companies - economically and environmentally.
So as Bob just said, how about we keep from pointing fingers at countries, otherwise we might as well argue about De Beers' blood diamonds, Chocolate and child labor, or any number of other destructive capitalist policies.
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Hmmm
De Beers you say, well like BP they are supplying to a need, and like gas, the USA are the hungriest for diamonds (China looks to be catching however), if you don't want blood diamonds then stop buying them, the same logic for drugs.
I am appalled at our governments treatment of BP, silly things we do in an election year.
There are three huge companies involved here, why not point fingers at all? IMO Halliburton is the guilty party. -
Dear Solo,
There are Wiki entries on both Halliburton and Transocean. Didn't realise how much Halliburton was tied into the US military and past administrations. I believe that Halliburton did the cementing at the well-head.
From the Wiki entry on Transocean
"On April 21, 2010, a fire was reported on a Transocean-owned semisubmersible drilling rig, Deepwater Horizon, made by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea. Deepwater Horizon was a Reading & Bates Falcon RBS8D design, a firm that was acquired by Transocean in 2001."
There are also Wiki entries for Deepwater_Horizon, and well blowout, with the later giving a list of notable off-shore well blowouts (where do people find the time to write this stuff)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowout_%28well_drilling%29
I find the following extract from this website very telling (http://www.eoearth.org/article/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill)
"Questions about Blowout Preventers
The Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer (BOP) was not equipped with a remote control shut-off failsafe switch required in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills. Both Norway and Brazil require such a device, which costs about $500,000. U.S. Federal regulators had specifically exempted the Deepwater Horizon from having such a remote shut-off switch partially on the grounds of the costliness of the device (less than one percent of the Deepwater Horizon capital cost).
The failure of the BOP was foreshadowed by a 2003 paper by Deepwater Horizon owner Transocean that highlighted problems with hydraulic components of BOP control systems across the industry and suggested equipment was being rushed into the field with limited testing. Other studies had noted that a part of the BOP called a shear ram —the last line of defense that is intended to cut and close a drill pipe when all else fails — can't always slice through the thick pipe used in deepwater drilling. A 2004 study commissioned by federal regulators found that only three of 14 newly built rigs had shears powerful enough to cut through pipe at the equipment's maximum water depth.
In 2001, the U.S. Minerals Management Service proposed rules that would have required emergency backup control systems on BOP systems. The proposed rules were not yet law at the time of the Deepwater Horizon accident."
Regards.
Bob
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