I think it's appalling that BP,
despite not breaking any regulations whatsoever (apparently) is getting hammered for this. They bear some responsibility, and have gone way over and above legal requirements ($75m cap, anyone?).

Transocean are the platform operator, and their rig failed. Probably owing to poor quality cementing by Halliburton. Both American.

Osama is showing himself to be a real political lightweight; instead of solving and investigating the issue, and any shortcomings due to US legislation or companies, as part of this, he's punching at an Aunt Sally.
( disasterprone "Pyjamas caused the Holocaust", Wed 16 Jun 2010, 14:59, 4 replies)

whether they broke regulations or not
they have accepted responsibility for the spill and for stopping it. I agree Obama's rhetoric is over the top though, but he's got to appear tough to his people.
(Smale is stuffed, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 15:14, closed)

BP has no choice but to accept responsibility.
They know if they tried to point the finger at anyone else, they will get killed by the media, the public, etc. (Although if you listened to the three companies pointeing the finger at each other when they testified to congress, it was just like a bunch of 8 yr old booys who got caught breaking the cookie jar. It was pathetic).
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 15:20, closed)

Interesting figures SYFTS
Private Eye's number crunching last edition
Clean up worker - £7.50 an hour
Chairman of BP - £1,500 an hour
BP profits in 1st Qtr - £1,500,000 an hour
(Set your faces to stunned.,

And while the profits massively out weigh the risks this shit will go on and on.
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 15:18, closed)

They are fully responsible for the disaster. If the leak is the "fault" of Transocean or Halliburtain,
BP as the company that hired them was responsible to INSURE that their subcontractors acted correctly and safely. If they didn''t insure this was done (and more and nore we are seeing that they didn't) then they are liable adn responsible.

The $75m cap will be meaningless for this.

As to not breaking any regulations, the US has strict environmental regulations regarding polluting estuaries, oceans, killing wildlife, etc. I believe that they should be held criminally liable and whoever approved poor drilling and cementing procedures shoudl go to jail.
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 15:18, closed)

I am
One of the insurance claims people for this.

It's a mess (pardon the pun) and the losses will go way over the cover they have bought. Combined.
(Set your faces to Stunned Bigly, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 15:30, closed)

and I bet they will then try to play poor even while making
billions in pure profit over and above they clean up expenses tjhey will incur.
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 15:48, closed)

Agreed.
He needs to shut his mouth, as all he's doing is making it far worse (for UK and US people) by destroying pension pot funds and dividend payments (some of which would go into the pension pots).

BP put their hands up to it immediatly, yet this tool says "BP are to blame", they say "Yep, sorry, and we'll pay for it.". He says, "BP are going to pay" (in a menacing way).
BP say "We'll get it all cleaned up too", he says "BP should get this cleaned up".

Of course, Piper Alpha and Bhopal are conveniently forgotten about.
(dchurch bah, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 15:21, closed)

This^
While he's trying to destroy the markets, he ignores that millions of pensioners rely upon BP's profits to keep them eating.
( BrokenCoccyx doesn't mind if you grope on, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 15:23, closed)

You should be blaming BP for putting the pensioners at risk. They Fucked up by causing the release.
BP has the money anyway. They will not go bankrupt because of this and I''m sure that the BP executives will continue to make millions through bonuses etc no matter what happens to dividends and pensioners.

BP should be sued by any pension funds that reley on these dividends as they are the cause of the spill and resulting decrease in dividends (although they are still paying out plenty of dividends).
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 15:29, closed)

I don't know that they "caused" the release. It may turn out after inquests that they were negligent
But any country's leader should weigh his words before he/she speaks, especially given the dramatic effect it has on markets. He simply has no understanding of economics and is waaay over his head.
( BrokenCoccyx doesn't mind if you grope on, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 15:32, closed)

A
political heavyweight would be helping, not pointing fingers and by doing so pushing down pension pots of people he supposedly represents (as well as out pension pots and no doubt those of many other countries).

This is showing him up for the lightweight he is.

Sure, we did bad things to his great grandad, but he needs to remember we were the first to abolish slavery too.

He needs to reconsider his position if he's that badly damaged that he can't think without bias.
(dchurch bah, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 16:45, closed)

stop talking arse, it doesn't work like that.
And your environmental point above? how is the relevant? BP (to the best of the knowledge of those of us in and connected to the industry) met all US deepwater drilling regs and their procedure was approved by the US regulatory authorities. So they are fairly unlikely to be criminally negligent due to the minor matter of not committing a crime. They didn't "cause" the spill, there was an accident. If you choose to drill for oil more than a mile down, bad shit sometimes happens. If the US wasn't so fucking desperate to be self-sustainable in their insatiable appetite for oil so they don't have to deal with "forrins" then they wouldn't be begging companies to drill in high risk scenarios. No-one. to. blame. but. themselves.

Hopefully the only decent thing to come out of it might be the US public giving slight more than two short shits about it's energy policy in the future.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 17:36, closed)

The US energy policy is screwed up, I admit.
We have no need to drill that far out, when other countries are drilling even closer in the Gulf. And I agree with the MMS (the regulatory arm) - I dealt with them with oil and gas with Indian tribes and the MMS is as corrupt as they are bloated.
( BrokenCoccyx doesn't mind if you grope on, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 17:49, closed)

In the pursuit of fairness
I should point out that the US are hardly alone in this, but they are by far the worst. The combination of massive desire for oil coupled with the mentality that it must be US oil is ...well.... mental.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 17:55, closed)

I see nothing wrong with oil
It seems to me that our ability to drill, transport and refine has greatly improved over the years. I've walked by equipment in the mountains that you could hardly tell were there.

They try to scare the public with photos from Kazakhstan and the like.
( BrokenCoccyx doesn't mind if you grope on, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 17:59, closed)

except that it's not inexhaustible.
our ability to drill has improved. We need to up our recovery from spent wells, realistically, rather than hitting new ones. And the deeper we go, the higher the risk. Especially once we are away from fixed rigs. Humanity wants it then it needs to be prepared to pay the price. This, right now, is the price.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 18:06, closed)

The environmental liability comes under
what is known as "Strict, joint,and severable" liability. Basically, there is no excuse even if you are following standard industry practices or are in compliance worth regulations. It's a very strong and useful piece of legislation.

I am fairly familiar witht he issues invovled in drilling 5000 feet deep adn also agree that serious problems can happen. In this case however, there is more and more information coming to light that BP and its subcontractors were cutting corners and not following standard safety practices in an area they knew had high pressure issues. This is where the criminal liability comes in under US environmenatl regulations.

I completely agree with your statement about the US energy policy,. It was written by the ex chair of Halliburton and his masters in teh oil industry. Our policies are totally fucked.
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 13:27, closed)