BP's Gulf oil spill response plans severely flawed

ZappasGuitar said:
The big question is how do you plan on blaming Obama for all of the shortcomings in BP's spill response plan?
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Because the Government reviewed, approved and issued a permit to drill based upon this SPCC plan.

The government will have a responsibility to review and revise how they issue approvals on these types of SPCC plans but be that as it may. This spill is entirely the fault of BP.
 
Cypress said:
wow, nice! that article was chock full of info.

The article sounds like it was written by a communist. I still agree with the teabaggers that private industry can be allowed to self regulate, and needs minimal oversight. :rolleyes:


Man, cons talk about one insignificant error about a himilayan glacier in the 3000 page IPCC report, but this "plan" sounds like it had massive errors and junk science on almost every page. Maybe we should hire IPCC scientists to write drilling regulations. Hey man, didn't I say about four days into this clusterfuck that I had the impression BP was flying by the seat of their pants?.


For some reason, the oil companies go to exquisite pains to develop their seismic surveys, their drilling plans, and their revenue sharing contractual arrangements with third world dictators. Always very technically and legally sound. Surprisingly, however it sounds like BP treated a very important environmental response plan the way a 6th grader treats homework......like a fucking chore they just want to get over with as quick as possible.

My solution: don't let BP write their own environmental plans. Require them to hire some smart and awesome Greenpeace babes to write their freaking environmental plan. Those awesome babes are going to make sure it's fucking done right.
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Now here I disagree. The Federal and State governments have a legal responsibility to review and approve these plans. If the plan was inadequate and the Feds issued a permit then the Feds must take responsibility for that lack of over sight. If BP handled this permit requirement like a 6th grader doing homework, then the Feds managed the approval process like Dixie reading a comic book. If the Feds had indication that BP was in over their head with this SPCC plan then they simply should not have issued a permit and that would make both the Bush and Obama administration responsible, if such was the case.
 
tom prendergast said:
Again no mention of Transocean and Halliburton.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0609/BP-takes-Gulf-oil-spill-heat-but-what-about-other-companies
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Oh trust me, In a spill situation all companies involved with this drilling operations will be a PRP (Potentially Responsible Party) under CERCLA (aka Superfund) and let me tell you, that's the kind of litigation that will make any CEO's asshole pucker because if the courts determine you are a responsible party then your company will have to pay not according to how much they contributed to the mess but according to how deep their pockets are. A responsible party may have just sold equipment to make the shut off valve but if that company is Haliburton then will pay to help clean up the mess according to how much money they have.
 
Transocean will get a 100% total pass. A rig worker testified of a fight between a transocean engineer and a BP engineer where the BP engineer put his foot down and insisted on skipping routine saftey procedures to save $.

SKULL DRAG BP!!!
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Oh trust me, In a spill situation all companies involved with this drilling operations will be a PRP (Potentially Responsible Party) under CERCLA (aka Superfund) and let me tell you, that's the kind of litigation that will make any CEO's asshole pucker because if the courts determine you are a responsible party then your company will have to pay not according to how much they contributed to the mess but according to how deep their pockets are. A responsible party may have just sold equipment to make the shut off valve but if that company is Haliburton then will pay to help clean up the mess according to how much money they have.
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If you read the article then you would have seen that both companies have no liability clauses in their contracts with BP. I just hope that all these people baying for BP's blood will be happy if a Chinese oil company initiates a hostile takeover.
 
Topspin said:
Not finally moron, I and many others have blamed them from day 1. But ignorant libtards like you want to paint the whole industry with the brush meant soley for BP.
Obama is collateral damage and must reap what he has sown by falsely tying Bush to Katrina.
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Exactly, both Repubs and Dems are busy trying to explain how it is the fault of the other party. Some even go so far as to blame Libertarian dog catchers (we have virtually no power yet we are somehow to blame every time something goes wrong). Meanwhile, BP sneaks away under the cover of the spectacle put on by the "bread and circus" party (both parties).

Privatizing profits and socializing the losses of risky ventures is not capitalism.
 
Topspin said:
which is a year old, nice trolling
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Read the article first, then comment.

As BP bears the brunt of anger over the Gulf of Mexico oil slick, drilling company Transocean is staying out of the spotlight.

By Philip Sherwell, US Editor
Published: 7:46PM BST 05 Jun 2010

They are not the usual images of a buttoned-down oil industry executive honouring employees at a corporate gathering. But in the video posted on the Transocean website, Steven Newman performs an impressive Bollywood dance routine accompanied by four scantily-clad women.
The American chief executive of the world’s biggest offshore oil drilling company was fulfilling a pledge to demonstrate his dance moves if the company’s Indian division achieved top safety award targets.

Mr Newman and Transocean have very different safety concerns now. The firm owned operated the doomed Deepwater Horizon rig that was blown apart in April while drilling a well for BP, killing 11 workers and unleashing the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
As a result, Mr Newman seems to have lost the taste for the spotlight that he in displayed in Mumbai last year. Instead, he and his company have maintained a notably low profile, even as oil this weekend reaches the white sand beaches of Florida and grim images of seabirds coated in crude dominate front pages.
Their absence is in stark contrast to the spectacular vilification of British firm BP and its chief executive Tony Hayward, who has become public enemy number one for both Washington and the wider American public.
In his latest broadside, President Barack Obama on Friday night scolded BP for spending $50 million on a television advertising campaign in which the energy giant apologised for the oil slick and explained its role in the clean-up process. He claimed the company should not be spending money on a PR offensive while allegedly “nickel-and-diming” (shortchanging) locals hit by the spill.
Yet while lambasting BP for even seeking to defend its reputation, Mr Obama has showed no apparent interest in directing similar wrath at Transocean -- fuelling suggestions that as a foreign company, BP is simply a convenient whipping boy and a politically easier target.
“Transocean has done a very good job of hunkering down and keeping quiet while BP takes the flak,” said a US oil industry source. “BP is clearly the ‘responsible party’ for the response under American law. But this was Transocean equipment and workers and at some stage they are going to have to answer questions about their role.”
Because it leased the rig, drew up the plans for the well and owned the oil, BP is the “responsible party” under American legislation for the leak, containment and clean-up.
But as Transocean was the rig’s owner and operator, its role is also under scrutiny. Both the criminal investigation by the Department of Justice and forthcoming civil compensation cases will examine the firm’s actions -- yet its name is rarely mentioned by US politicians or media.
Mr Hayward has certainly made several verbal blunders, most notably when he said last week that “I’d like my life back”. He rapidly apologised for an off-the-cuff remark that provoked fury in the light of the 11 lives lost in the explosion and thousands of livelihoods endangered by the spill.
The 53-year-old Briton has become one of the most recognisable faces on US television screens and the focus for an anti-British backlash as oil pours into the Gulf despite repeated attempts to plug the leak.
Mr Newman has avoided the media, other than being briefly forced into the spotlight for an awkward appearance before a congressional hearing in Washington. Yet the Transocean company magazine Beacon features an interview with him in its latest edition under the headline ‘Ready to Roll’.
“I love this business,” he says. Asked to describe himself in three words, he chooses: “Perfectionist. Demanding. Ambitious.” He also discloses that at the time he was reading ‘How The Mighty Fall’ (a book outlining why some companies go into decline and others avoid that fall).
In the interview, Mr Newman emphasised the importance of safety but also the company’s “can-do” principle of challenging the boundaries of nature though innovation and new technology.
Transocean -- corporate motto: “we’re never out of our depth” -- is an industry behemoth which employs 18,000 people in 30 countries, but is based in the landlocked canton of Zug, Switzerland, for tax purposes.
The firm declined to make an executive available for interview, but issued a corporate declaration about safety when contacted by The Sunday Telegraph.
“Transocean’s first commitment is the safety of its people,” a spokesman said. “Recognition by government agencies and industry peers over the years attest to the positive impact of Transocean’s safety programmes.”
The investigations into the Deepwater Horizon disaster are focusing on two crucial failures -- what caused the initial explosion and why the blow-out preventer (BOP) device did not then block-off the well, preventing the leak.
The role of the BOP, which is supposed to operate automatically, has been at the centre of the finger-pointing between BP and Transocean after the accident. Problems have since been reported with two BOPs on Transocean drillships operating off India.
Transocean also come under fire from lawyers representing fishing and tourist businesses hit by the spill and the Department of Justice for seeking to use an 1851 law to restrict its liability for economic damages to $26.7 million.
“It’s just ridiculous and outrageous,” said Stuart Smith, a New Orleans lawyer representing the Gulf Oil Disaster Recovery Group, an umbrella organisation, who argues that the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 supersedes the old law.
By contrast, BP said that it will not seek the protection of a cap of $75 million on economic damages offered by the 1990 Oil Pollution Act, although Gulf state officials have sharply criticised the speed of pay-outs by the company.
Meanwhile, on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, a cap installed last week over the gushing well was funnelling some oil 5,000 ft up to boats at the surface.
Thad Allen, the retired coastguard commandant heading the federal response, said that the device had captured 6,000 barrels in its first 24 hours in position – equivalent to between a third and a half of the 12,000-19,0000 barrels escaping daily.
The containment rate is expected to increase as engineers slowly close vents in the cap, raising the hopes that BP is finally making significant progress in its efforts to stem the leak.
But yesterday, in his weekly presidential radio address, Obama maintained his forceful tone toward BP, saying: “We will make sure they pay every single dime owed to the people along the Gulf coast.”
 
tom prendergast said:
Read the article first, then comment.

As BP bears the brunt of anger over the Gulf of Mexico oil slick, drilling company Transocean is staying out of the spotlight.

By Philip Sherwell, US Editor
Published: 7:46PM BST 05 Jun 2010

They are not the usual images of a buttoned-down oil industry executive honouring employees at a corporate gathering. But in the video posted on the Transocean website, Steven Newman performs an impressive Bollywood dance routine accompanied by four scantily-clad women.
The American chief executive of the world’s biggest offshore oil drilling company was fulfilling a pledge to demonstrate his dance moves if the company’s Indian division achieved top safety award targets.

Mr Newman and Transocean have very different safety concerns now. The firm owned operated the doomed Deepwater Horizon rig that was blown apart in April while drilling a well for BP, killing 11 workers and unleashing the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
As a result, Mr Newman seems to have lost the taste for the spotlight that he in displayed in Mumbai last year. Instead, he and his company have maintained a notably low profile, even as oil this weekend reaches the white sand beaches of Florida and grim images of seabirds coated in crude dominate front pages.
Their absence is in stark contrast to the spectacular vilification of British firm BP and its chief executive Tony Hayward, who has become public enemy number one for both Washington and the wider American public.
In his latest broadside, President Barack Obama on Friday night scolded BP for spending $50 million on a television advertising campaign in which the energy giant apologised for the oil slick and explained its role in the clean-up process. He claimed the company should not be spending money on a PR offensive while allegedly “nickel-and-diming” (shortchanging) locals hit by the spill.
Yet while lambasting BP for even seeking to defend its reputation, Mr Obama has showed no apparent interest in directing similar wrath at Transocean -- fuelling suggestions that as a foreign company, BP is simply a convenient whipping boy and a politically easier target.
“Transocean has done a very good job of hunkering down and keeping quiet while BP takes the flak,” said a US oil industry source. “BP is clearly the ‘responsible party’ for the response under American law. But this was Transocean equipment and workers and at some stage they are going to have to answer questions about their role.”
Because it leased the rig, drew up the plans for the well and owned the oil, BP is the “responsible party” under American legislation for the leak, containment and clean-up.
But as Transocean was the rig’s owner and operator, its role is also under scrutiny. Both the criminal investigation by the Department of Justice and forthcoming civil compensation cases will examine the firm’s actions -- yet its name is rarely mentioned by US politicians or media.
Mr Hayward has certainly made several verbal blunders, most notably when he said last week that “I’d like my life back”. He rapidly apologised for an off-the-cuff remark that provoked fury in the light of the 11 lives lost in the explosion and thousands of livelihoods endangered by the spill.
The 53-year-old Briton has become one of the most recognisable faces on US television screens and the focus for an anti-British backlash as oil pours into the Gulf despite repeated attempts to plug the leak.
Mr Newman has avoided the media, other than being briefly forced into the spotlight for an awkward appearance before a congressional hearing in Washington. Yet the Transocean company magazine Beacon features an interview with him in its latest edition under the headline ‘Ready to Roll’.
“I love this business,” he says. Asked to describe himself in three words, he chooses: “Perfectionist. Demanding. Ambitious.” He also discloses that at the time he was reading ‘How The Mighty Fall’ (a book outlining why some companies go into decline and others avoid that fall).
In the interview, Mr Newman emphasised the importance of safety but also the company’s “can-do” principle of challenging the boundaries of nature though innovation and new technology.
Transocean -- corporate motto: “we’re never out of our depth” -- is an industry behemoth which employs 18,000 people in 30 countries, but is based in the landlocked canton of Zug, Switzerland, for tax purposes.
The firm declined to make an executive available for interview, but issued a corporate declaration about safety when contacted by The Sunday Telegraph.
“Transocean’s first commitment is the safety of its people,” a spokesman said. “Recognition by government agencies and industry peers over the years attest to the positive impact of Transocean’s safety programmes.”
The investigations into the Deepwater Horizon disaster are focusing on two crucial failures -- what caused the initial explosion and why the blow-out preventer (BOP) device did not then block-off the well, preventing the leak.
The role of the BOP, which is supposed to operate automatically, has been at the centre of the finger-pointing between BP and Transocean after the accident. Problems have since been reported with two BOPs on Transocean drillships operating off India.
Transocean also come under fire from lawyers representing fishing and tourist businesses hit by the spill and the Department of Justice for seeking to use an 1851 law to restrict its liability for economic damages to $26.7 million.
“It’s just ridiculous and outrageous,” said Stuart Smith, a New Orleans lawyer representing the Gulf Oil Disaster Recovery Group, an umbrella organisation, who argues that the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 supersedes the old law.
By contrast, BP said that it will not seek the protection of a cap of $75 million on economic damages offered by the 1990 Oil Pollution Act, although Gulf state officials have sharply criticised the speed of pay-outs by the company.
Meanwhile, on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, a cap installed last week over the gushing well was funnelling some oil 5,000 ft up to boats at the surface.
Thad Allen, the retired coastguard commandant heading the federal response, said that the device had captured 6,000 barrels in its first 24 hours in position – equivalent to between a third and a half of the 12,000-19,0000 barrels escaping daily.
The containment rate is expected to increase as engineers slowly close vents in the cap, raising the hopes that BP is finally making significant progress in its efforts to stem the leak.
But yesterday, in his weekly presidential radio address, Obama maintained his forceful tone toward BP, saying: “We will make sure they pay every single dime owed to the people along the Gulf coast.”
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Hey Transocean may not be taking the PR hit that BP is, at this moment, but I guarantee that when CERCLA kicks in they are going to bite a huge big chunk out of Transoceans ass and playing low profile won't do a damned thing to stop that.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Hey Transocean may not be taking the PR hit that BP is, at this moment, but I guarantee that when CERCLA kicks in they are going to bite a huge big chunk out of Transoceans ass and playing low profile won't do a damned thing to stop that.
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your guarantee is worthless
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Now here I disagree. The Federal and State governments have a legal responsibility to review and approve these plans. If the plan was inadequate and the Feds issued a permit then the Feds must take responsibility for that lack of over sight. If BP handled this permit requirement like a 6th grader doing homework, then the Feds managed the approval process like Dixie reading a comic book. If the Feds had indication that BP was in over their head with this SPCC plan then they simply should not have issued a permit and that would make both the Bush and Obama administration responsible, if such was the case.
Click to expand...

Totally concur, man.

No doubt. I'm on record saying that this cluserf*ck is an indictment of BP and the MMS who was supposed to be regulating them. I've explicitly said we need some Nazi regulators overseeing the oil barons. My suggestion has been to import some cranky and jackbooted Norwegian oil regulators or to have some smart Greenpeace babes running MMS but I'm open to other suggestions. Ha!

From what I can tell, MMS is and always has been an obscure regulatory agency that has been systematically weakened and watered down over the years. That whole agency has been corrupted, and Salazar should have made it a higher priority to fix.

So the problem is systematic: some companies, like BP are going to treat environmental and safety planning like a freaking home work chore, and do a half assed job on it. And MMS was too freaking cozy with these oil barons to be able to do any adequate oversight.

I'm thinking that lefty greenie Van Johnson dude whom the rightwing deregulation crowd hated, could be brought into MMS. That would make sean hannity's head explode, making Mr. Johnson's appointment a double bonus!
 
Cypress said:
Totally concur, man.

No doubt. I'm on record saying that this cluserf*ck is an indictment of BP and the MMS who was supposed to be regulating them. I've explicitly said we need some Nazi regulators overseeing the oil barons. My suggestion has been to import some cranky and jackbooted Norwegian oil regulators or to have some smart Greenpeace babes running MMS but I'm open to other suggestions. Ha!

From what I can tell, MMS is and always has been an obscure regulatory agency that has been systematically weakened and watered down over the years. That whole agency has been corrupted, and Salazar should have made it a higher priority to fix.

So the problem is systematic: some companies, like BP are going to treat environmental and safety planning like a freaking home work chore, and do a half assed job on it. And MMS was too freaking cozy with these oil barons to be able to do any adequate oversight.

I'm thinking that lefty greenie Van Johnson dude whom the rightwing deregulation crowd hated, could be brought into MMS. That would make sean hannity's head explode, making Mr. Johnson's appointment a double bonus!
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There's a simple solution to that. Change the oversight for the OPA over to US EPA's office of solid waste. They are the jack booted regulators you want.


Oh...and anything that would make Shawn Hannity's head explode is a good thing. :)
 
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