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BP Knew of Deepwater Horizon Problems 11 Months Ago
jkinney3 was one of several readers to send in news of recently discovered internal documents from BP which indicate the company knew "there were serious problems and safety concerns with the Deepwater Horizon rig far earlier than those the company described to Congress last week." According to the New York Times, "The documents show that in March, after several weeks of problems on the rig, BP was struggling with a loss of 'well control.' And as far back as 11 months ago, it was concerned about the well casing and the blowout preventer." Reader bezenek points out this troubling quote about BP's inconsistent risk assessments: "In April of this year, BP engineers concluded that the casing was 'unlikely to be a successful cement job,' according to a document, referring to how the casing would be sealed to prevent gases from escaping up the well. The document also says that the plan for casing the well is 'unable to fulfill M.M.S. regulations,' referring to the Minerals Management Service. A second version of the same document says 'It is possible to obtain a successful cement job' and 'It is possible to fulfill M.M.S. regulations.'"
Does this really surprise anyone?
Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
How does this come as a surprise since the government limits BP's liability to just a drop in the bucket for them? Yeah, they are thinking about retroactively removing it, but seriously, anytime you reduce the liability to an artificially low number, you are just asking for trouble.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Did they not honestly believe that a disaster could occur? Did the right people not talk to each other? Or was the urge to cut corners simply so great that people ignored the risk?
From the ABC interview with one of the survivors, the BP people were arguing with the Transocean people, insisting that it would be ok to skip some phases of sealing the well because they wanted to move the schedule up. I wonder what that BP manager was thinking.
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
The more I learn about this, the more I'm inclined to think that the last thing BP ever does as a company on this planet will be cleaning up the mess.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
You and I both know, no matter what comes out...no matter how bad and damning the evidence is against BP...the USA taxpayer and consumer will bear the brunt of the cost of the cleanup. BP is too big to prosecute! They have too much influence with the government, have too many lawyers, and have an unlimited supply of $$$ to do what they want. I'm not shocked or surprised at what BP knew, but I will be shocked if they are held accountable in the end.
From here:
Was anyone else reminded of that little gem?
"Live as if you'll die tomorrow." Ridiculous. You could die later today.
Those lying sons of bitches...
You honestly think BP will face more than token consequences and maybe a name change?
Yes.
This incident has a lot of visibility, and the government can not afford to let it go with a slap.
Beyond that, lawsuits arising from this will fill the courts for YEARS. The lawsuits will cost BP much more money and bad publicity that any government action.
BP *WILL NOT* come out of this unscathed, if they come out at all.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Drilling oil wells through three miles of rock while floating a mile above the wellhead is really hard and dangerous and - oh my - there were documents that say exactly that.
Obi-Wan: "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were sudden
PSTO is coming....
The pressure in a properly drilled and cased oil well is supposed to be static. You're supposed to have to pump the oil out. If the drill pipe accidentally breaks off, you're not supposed to have oil spewing out.
If you do want to "own" this disaster and take responsibility then here is a challenge for you. Take this memo and every other smoking gun a decent investigation will reveal and seize BP and all its assets. Take the assets of ALL the top level execs and board, use that to pay for the clean up. Hold those same people criminally responsible for ALL of this and imprison them. Have BP continue to run and use all of its future profits and assets to fund some proper alternative fuel projects, or just pay off the national debt.
This is something the people would gladly see happen. It may restore some faith in us, letting us know the gov't is not completely corrupt and run by these bastards. And it would go a long way to prove you are not just a puppet who provides lip service on the news. It could show you actually give a damn.
So, are you willing to be the change you spoke about?
The pressure in a properly drilled and cased oil well is supposed to be static. You're supposed to have to pump the oil out. If the drill pipe accidentally breaks off, you're not supposed to have oil spewing out.
I take it you're *NOT* a engineer or drilling expert?
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Apologies if this is old news, but didn't Halliburton actually do the work on the pipe that broke? According to The Independent it would seem so:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/what-was-halliburtons-role-in-us-oil-spill-1987038.html
A commenter on that story asserts that a week before the trouble occurred, Halliburton bought a smaller company who specialise in these kinds of repairs, but I've been unable to find any details about this. Anyone got anything on this?
20% bonus if I come in ahead of schedule. etc etc etc.
Deleted
Incorporation is a privilege granted, rather than a certainty, or a "right". It can be revoked, although in the century since the accountants and lawyers started running things, it hasn't happened much. BP's apparent dishonesty and negligence would seem valid reasons for this action, given the outcome: Many people dead and a huge environmental / economic effect.
After seeing this proclaimed "biggest US environmental disaster", I think we might consider all the other massive impacts of industrialization on the US and question not how bad the Gulf is (terrible and worse every moment), but just how bad everything else that has been allowed to become. (mountain top removal, pesticide and medications in water supplies, species extinctions, massive deforestation, Hanford Nuclear Reservation, etc) Can we really be sucked into believing that this is just one bad thing on one bad day?
That's right, it's not the engineers who run those companies and when I point this obvious fact out it gets a 'flamebait' score.
If it's a flamebait, then I am going for it again. ... BP, Transocean, Halliburton have not rationally considered the options and have not rationally analyzed the feasibility. They are doing exactly the same thing they have been doing for the past 30 years at least. The current oil spill is a mirror image of the Ixtoc disaster, the difference is just how deep they are drilling. They couldn't stop the spill in 50 meters of water with the blow out preventer, it did not work then, didn't work now; with the 'sombrero' = 'top hat', with the 'junk shot'= some metal balls they were throwing into the well then, they couldn't stop the leak with pumping the mud='top kill' etc.
Engineers can take all the offense they like, but this is simply the truth. Engineers are not running BP or Transocean or Halliburton. Engineers matter only to the question 'how much more money can we dig out of the earth' and not 'how do we deal with a disaster we may cause'.
You can't handle the truth.
Drink Frosty Piss
Since when did Slashdot turn into a competitor of CNN and Fox News?
This signature intentionally left unblank.
Time for the CEO to do some hardtime / the chair!
1953 Iranian coup d'etat
http://wearechangecoloradosprings.org/docs.php (pdf source documents for OPERATION AJAX)
The Persians were dissatisfied with the royalty terms of the British petroleum concession, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC), whereby Persia received 16 per cent of net profits.
In 1921, a military coup d'état—"widely believed to be a British attempt to enforce, at least, the spirit of the Anglo-Persian agreement" effected with the "financial and logistical support of British military personnel"—permitted the political emergence of Reza Pahlavi, whom they enthroned as the "Shah of Iran" in 1925. The Shah modernized Persia to the advantage of the British; one result was the Persian Corridor railroad for British military and civil transport during World War II.
In the 1930s, the Shah tried to terminate the APOC concession, but Britain would not allow it. The concession was renegotiated on terms again favorable to the British. On 21 March 1935, Pahlavi changed the name of the country from Persia to Iran. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company was then re-named the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC)...
The overthrow of Iran's elected government in 1953 ensured Western control of Iran's petroleum resources and prevented the Soviet Union from competing for Iranian oil. Some Iranian clerics cooperated with the western spy agencies because they were dissatisfied with Mosaddegh's secular government...
After the 1953 coup, the Shah's government formed the SAVAK (secret police), many of whose agents were trained in the United States. The SAVAK was given a "loose leash" to torture suspected dissidents with "brute force" that, over the years, "increased dramatically".
Another effect was sharp improvement of Iran's economy; the British-led oil embargo against Iran ended, and oil revenue increased significantly beyond the pre-nationalisation level. Despite Iran not controlling its national oil, the Shah agreed to replacing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company with a consortium—British Petroleum [40% owner] and eight European and American oil companies.
Like 9/11 and terrorism have anything to do with oil... err wait.
Fines don't amount to much, even if they're huge -- shareholders get hurt, but the decisionmakers don't get hurt enough.
The solution: long jail sentences, from the CEO on down to middle management. If you knew about this and were anything but a prole, you need to go to jail. A policy like this and management will consider safety far more important than they do now.
P.S. Same goes for Massey up in West Virginia, etc.
Support a few technologists in Washington.
Read parent again: the last thing BP ever does as a company on this planet will be cleaning up the mess
What the parent is trying to say is not that their final task will be to clean up the mess, but that the least likely scenario will be that the company will clean up the mess.
he won't be broke and broken, living under a bridge, but he's going away.
the question at hand should resolve over whether BP PLC is going away. there is ample proof of negligence and recklessness over the Mondero well, so there is no cap on liability.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
first intelligent suggestion I've seen in six weeks about B razen P olluters.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
GARY COLEMAN AND DENIS HOPPER ARE DEAD!!!!1!!11!11111
Yes, caps are like yelling. I'm trying to make a sarcastic remark, damn it!
Oil is almost as fungible as any national currency -- more so than most. The nature of oil moving in the global market is such that unless a boycott is nearly universal in its application, there is virtually no penalty against the boycotted firm. The only place consumers can really have an impact would be at BP stations in their community, and in general that would only impact the local owners and operators, while the refinery simply sold their products to other retailers.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
While the top guys are often not engineers, what you're saying isn't entirely true. They have very rationally considered the options. Here's a nice link to a technical briefing from last week where they outline their options and the current situation.
In addition Tony Hayward is a geologist with a PhD.
Read what I mean, not what I wrote.
*music plays* "You've earned 'Junk Shot'!".
The really interesting stuff is after 1:30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6ZN6r5-1QE
In Soviet Russia, articles before post read *you*!
...until BP is declared an enemy of the state?
Well ...... yes. You could theoretically forcibly liquidate BP with an act of law. What would it achieve though? The people running these operations don't grow on trees. Engineers stopped going into the oil business in the 70s and the industry faces a massive skills shortage. If you liquidated BP and all the staff were fired, not only would it be an immense disruption to world oil supplies and thus prices, but the very same people who made the proceed/don't proceed calls at BP will get hired by their competitors and go right back to work!
It's too early to say exactly what the problem was at Macondo Prospect. Whether it was BP management problems, or (more likely) a murky and complex story involving errors of judgement by multiple people at multiple levels, it's too early to say "the fix is to kill off BP". In fact it's very unlikely to be the solution.
Looks like the people who were involved in Deepwater Horizon are in a pile of deep brown stuff.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
As everyone here who has a job should know, any decision is a risk vs reward decision. With every software release, someone has to weigh the knows issue vs the effort to fix the problems.
If this event didn't happen, everyone would shrug and say "well hey, it worked, no harm no foul." Unfortunately it blew out, and well, at that point everyone's sort of f*cked.
If you let engineers run things, nothing will ever get done. There are an infinite number of risks, all of which are unmitigatable given reality. You can a
I'm too lazy to read the prior posts. However, here's the link to Matt Simmons talking about another leak. The one currently being reported is MINOR.
Seize B.P.'s U.S. assets before the executives flee to the United Kingdoom.
Yours In Astrakhan,
Kilgore Trout, C.I.O.
Yep...months ago. Good think Obama gave them award for their safety a few months ago. To think they could pull the wool over the eyes of The One!
Oh wait a minutes.... you guys got lawyers by the hundreds of thousands, that will SOLVE all your problems. Just sue yourselves while you're at it, you could use the Ca$h I'm sure....
Perhaps,... just perhaps this epic MAN-MADE eco disaster will wake up enough of your patriots (are there any left anywhere in the world these days?) to take back the agenda and start acting like you deserve the moniker, Superpower...
BTW, this isn't a flame, I'm a Canuck and I believe that the US is the greatest country on the planet...Americans are awesome, Hell, I even work for the US government (via third party)! In conclusion; Show some vision will ya? WAKE UP!
Amazing that someone could detect a problem w/ a well 9 months before they started drilling it.
Most deepwater wells encounter problems. That's why they cost $50-$150 million.
1) What did BP know and when did they know it
2) Nothing is risk-free. Would a responsible independent risk assessment say they should've done more to prevent a leak, or did it say that doing more would've been an unnecessary cost given the odds of something going wrong?
You don't crucify someone because they made the smart decision and it backfired. You crucify them if they made a stupid decision and it backfired.
To put it another way: We can have safer drilling if we are willing to pay more for oil or have less oil available. We rely on industry and regulators to find that balance between making drilling cost-effective and protecting the public and the environment. If they make responsible decisions and something goes wrong, that's the price we pay for affordable oil. If they make an irresponsible decision and something goes wrong, they are responsible for cleaning up the mess.
Anyone taking bets on when BP's US unit will file bankruptcy, and when the first indictments will be handed down?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
If you want to make corporations pay attention regarding flagrantly negligent behavior, how about threatening to take the damages directly out of shareholder equity. After all, when you buy shares, you already assume a fairly large amount of risk. If shareholders can be held liable for damages done by their company, I suspect corporate behavior would change markedly. The liability would be limited to the amount of equity owned. In an extreme case, perhaps where a corporation has blatantly flaunted the law, the shareholders or owners could have all of their equity liquidated, and sold to other buyers. Call it the corporate death penalty.
After all, if corporations are "people", why shouldn't they be held to the same level of responsibility as people? Why shouldn't they have penalties similar to those which we the people must live with? The idea of a corporate death penalty would likely have a huge effect, even if it is never used. Corporations would be far less likely to cut corners on safety. BP would have had to factor into its bottom line the costs of say drilling another relief well at the same time as the current well. They would be less likely to risk using an inferior method of cementing the casing. They would have had proven methods of capping such blowouts in place before they started drilling.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
is something called Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (a.k.a. R.I.C.O.).
I hope this helps your understanding of the legal basis for putting BRITISH PETROLEUM ( B.P.) out of business.
Yours In Vladivostok,
K. Trout
Oil spill.
?????
Profit!
I had to say it...anyways I came across this the other day [http://www.zerohedge.com/article/prominent-oil-industry-insider-theres-another-leak-much-bigger-5-6-miles-away]. If true this makes for a rather scary scenario.
I also stumbled across Transocean's website with the specs for the Deepwater Horizon [http://www.deepwater.com/fw/main/Deepwater-Horizon-56C17.html?LayoutID=17]. The specs state it's capable of drilling to 30,000ft. The actual depth of the well is 35,055ft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon]. That's almost a mile deeper than the stated abilities of the rig.
I won't waste time bashing corporate incompetence. I live on the Gulf Coast [near Destin] and I've been seeing and smelling the effects firsthand. I'll still be able to get up every morning and watch the sun rise over the water but it's heartbreaking knowing that the fish that live and spawn in our waters will probably die and it may be a decade before I can enjoy watching dolphins schooling fish into the shallows again.
There is nothing BP can do to make this right again.
We all want it! We all need it! We all know we can't live without it!
Toxic America, Toxic EU, Toxic RU, Toxic CN... Toxic Oceans, Toxic Air, Toxic Blood....
Politicians and Business could have invested in research years ago that would have developed hard and usable solutions for today in under-sea drilling. Solid-governance in the public interest would have refused to permit any off-shore drilling until solutions were proven and ready for the man-made fyckups. Politicians ask and pay business, not academia, for advice. If business funds academic research we get business findings. If We The People funded academic research, then we would get the findings we need (the best and most unbiased possible), then if we could prevent the politicians from re-writing the academic findings... (make it illegal). We should be looking at BP assets/accounts... and preparing to cease all that is BP, before investors can sell and criminals can destroy evidence and run with money to private country resorts. Corporate/Religious loyalty and honor will never be based on the public (or gods) interest. Freedom from governance for politicians, C*Os, clergy is a sure way to enslave US Citizens. Freedom applied to institutions is a crime against humanity under the cloak of law/megalomania. Freedom is a quality of life condition that applies to living things like US, EU, RU... Citizens. Business/political/religious... institutions have no innate rights to Freedom, no guilt response, and no need for any civil rights, institutions must be governed to prevent excesses by foolish a/o psychotic leaders. Every politician should be required to obtain a mental heath certificate prior to any campaigning.
What does proxy-governance by corporations a/o religions provide the world, except slow painful horrible cancerous, diseased, infected ... death? Nothing, but excuses and quisling quibbling for delusional people. The best solution is to nuke ourselves into annihilation/extinction. When the entitled few believe they can survive on top of the bodies of the masses history shows that the few are screwed permanently. With WMD-Drones (WMDD) and global environmental collapse today, It is in the interest of the entitled few and the bitchy many to get their shit together. Survival of the fittest is bullshit, and that which does not kill US will only make US weak cripples for scavengers.
T-Party, D-Party, R-Party, whatever/wherever-fycking-Party they are will provide varying spins on the same excuses and quisling quibbling, during and after each election. I have heard the same bullshit in the USA and every country I have been in for 40 years.
Corporations a/o religions are the root of all evil on the earth, from over-population, famine, pollution, energy, illiteracy, counterfeit-governments with proxy-governance, fear, intolerance.... Blaming the government for public stupidity and intransigence before and after every election is sickly-comical, the government is manipulated by the politicians agenda, the politicians agenda is directed by corporate interest, and the voters are the fools for believing them or gods are going to save them. If you cannot make a politician, C*O, cleric accountable to the people, then the people are just exploitable and expendable slaves of the ruling plutocrat masters. We must get our politicians to disenfranchise corporations, religion, and political-positions, then enfranchise and enable all the people within government and governance.
We US Citizens elected the mess, we gave the krap life long careers in fyckUS, and we should all shoulder the blame for our lack of responsibility to US as a People. The POTUS is new and proportionally as responsible as any other citizen for this fycking-mess.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
Where do you think damages are paid from in a civil suit against a corporation?
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
What future disasters does someone in BP know about now?
No company or individual would EVER consider taking on the risks involved in this kind of deep-water drilling without these caps. Without these caps, noone would drill-for and obtain this oil. WE THE PEOPLE of the United States NEED this oil. So, we allowed our politician to make these caps on liability. Live with the caps or die (due to lack of energy needs being met). Those are our options. This is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more serious than political back-dealing and/or incompetence, fuck-ups, etc. This is the reality that WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF FUCKING OIL! The only way to meet the demand/need is to drill for it under extreme, dangerous conditions such as this that are at the limits of our technological ability. The risks ARE EXTREMELY FUCKING HIGH! So high, that noone in their right mind would even attempt it if they could be held liable for any and all potential damages. WAKE UP PEOPLE! THIS IS FUCKING SERIOUS! WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF OIL! FAST! Please, please, please, take a moment to think about all that has transpired here and ask yourself WHY? There is only one logical, sensible, and reasonable conclusion. We are desperate (as a nation and as a global community) for these energy resources. If we don't bring Nuclear Power on-line FAST we are fucking doomed (Yes, I know there are risks there as well....great risks...but, the alternative is a return to the stone age and the extinction of humanity). It's probably already too late. Lobby your congress-critters. Talk to your friends. Your family. Your neighbors. Your church. People NEED to know how serious this is and put it in the proper context and stop trying to point fingers and lay blame. This is WAY MORE SERIOUS than laying blame. Please, yes, BP needs to clean up this mess and compensate those affected. People need to be held responsible. But, that is the LEAST of the worries. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, think about what I'm saying here.
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
I will stipulate that any oil spill damages the environment. Given that accidents do happen, would you rather try and fix an accident that occurred 5000 feet below the surface of the ocean or one that occurred in ANWR? An accident that occurred on land likely would not be measured in multiples of Exxon Valdez. Sure I want solar and wind and any other renewable energy source development to be pursued vigorously. But until our world can wean itself off of petroleum we need to show more sense from the standpoint of disaster recovery.
What becomes of this tragedy in the gulf will be a great way for everyone to finally realize just how fascist our system of government has become; that is if it goes the way many of us believe it will, a slap on the wrist to BP. Of course I could be wrong. Some judges and prosecutors might actually acquire some balls and give BP what they truly deserve. I will not be satisfied by anything less than: 1. 10+ year prison terms for at least ALL senior BP executives, 2. the dissolution of ALL of BP/auctioning of all assets and seizure/redistribution of all available BP funds. Basically, get completely rid of the entire company for good.
God Bless the Freedom of Information Act Requests and the Judges who grant them!
Game Plan:
BP PLC is acting at the behest of the United Kingdom Government in London.
Gulf spillage is at the direction of UK London, with BP PLC approval.
The "Accident" was an act of Terror and an attack against the United States of America.
Reason: Obama screwed Copenhagan Accord.
Reaction: Brits Pissed! Much of the anthropogenic global warming extremism comes from, put gently, Excentrics, in the merry old UK.
In retalliation to Obama, UK enlists BP PLC to do the "nasty". When presented with the plan, BP PLC "salutes" i.e. jerks off. Then follows orders.
And 6 months later we are here.
What we need to do:
1. Get the documents linking the UK, Copenhagen Failure, and BP PLC.
After that the courts will be happy.
This will allow Obama to designate the United Kingdom as:
1. Terrorist Organization.
2. Enemy Combatant.
This will allow for the retallation raids on London:
1. Burn Buckingham Palace to the ground with a high-altitude nuclear inceneration.
2. Visit a 2 km wide crater centered on No, 10.
3. Napalm London proper.
The Parasites within London need Extermination, yet again, and the USA will gladly do the "DIRTY WORK"!.
Your 2% figure is garbage FUD.
http://www.energyinsights.net/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000000/000085.htm
http://www.energyinsights.net/cgi-script/csArticles/uploads/85/Oil%20Production%20in%20N%20America%20%20from%201995%20and%20forecast.gif
He should read that Dilbert, where Dogbert thwacks morons who don't know what "fungible" means.
Anyone who has had any experience with drilling opreations in the gulf will know that loss of drilling fluids, kicks and other well control events are common, expected and routine. Dressing them up to be problems with the well design is pure horsepuckey. If you don't know what you're talking about then STFU. Even so-called "underground blowouts" are common and can be insured by lloyds. Furthermore the phrase 'casing was unlikely to be a successful cement job' makes no sense. The article is poorly written by people who do not have a grasp of oilfield equipment and procedures and obviously could not be bothered consulting with someone who was in the rush to attempt to smear Pulitzer all over themselves. Now, this statement has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual issues which were: failure on BP and Transoceans part to identify excessive fluid flows following the cementation of the production liner AND failure (or so it seems from public information) to maintain the BOP- quite a difficult task given its located at the sea floor but any indication that it has problems should call for immediate halt and repair work. When drilling any well, your BOP is all that stands between you, catastrophe and death. /rant
Kill them all.
Burn their bodies, homes, factories, cites.
Leave nothing standing across the British Isles.
The Parasite know as "British" is about to be exterminated for once and for all.
Who cares? There's money to be made!
If you don't have a clue yet, the future success is not to subsidize more oil exploration (shale? ha! Why not just buy more tar sands from Canada?) The real change will come with INCENTIVES from the government for technological INNOVATION. Solar, wind power, wave power, dams, fuel cells, Nuclear, energy efficiency... its not fucking rocket science, there just needs to be the political will to make it happen.
So some low-level technician or engineer knew there was an issue, passed the information to management, and against all sound judgement, they proceed. It's Challenger all over again. Perhaps if we started hanging the over-paid mangers by their thumbs, this kind of crap will stop happening.
People should really be aware of the history and context of these companies.
This is British Petrol, the same company that is effectively responsible for the mess in Iran today. They have a history of blatant disregard for safety.
And the platform is owned by Transocean, a Swiss company, the same company that had a nearly identical accident in 1979 that was the second largest oil spill in world history, the Ixtoc I (the largest being the oil spill that was part of the Gulf War).
The reinsurance companies are two German companies; insurance companies are supposed to assess the risk, insist on necessary safety measures, and price insurance accordingly. They dropped the ball too.
It's disturbing that Europeans are so quick to point the finger at the US. This is a problem that has been primarily created by European companies. It would have been nice if US regulators had regulated them more strongly, but that doesn't transfer responsibility to the US government.
What do we expect when we (not the US, the entirety of the Western Hemisphere at the moment) have a corporate culture where spending the least possible, while still charging the most possible is the major determiner for success?
What bonuses (boni?) did BP management receive for bringing this impending disaster on us? Will they have to be paid back? Doubt it. Pat on the back, well done, we'll just fire some low-level workers to cover costs or just transfer them to the idiot customers (to which competitors to BP will just say "hooray", meet the price and pocket the higher profits).
Same situation for the toxic debt problem. Same situation for the rushed Iraq invasion. Same situation for most other environmental disasters.
This is evident in every facet of our lives. In my industry (education), we're trying to pack more students into smaller spaces with fewer teachers. We're wondering why we're seeing things like lesser empathy in tertiary students... DUH.
So in other words, the disaster was more or less planned on purpose.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Well documented.
Although this is bad, it will be worse if we find out other wells have pulled the same stunts.
Out of sight, out of mind, too deep for anyone to really find out - really?
What is the WORST that could happen? is one question.
How Likely another
How do we mitigate the risks?
Figure in platforms blowing up and sinking happens quite a bit.
We are rushing to meet a deadline.
Broadly they should seize every bit of email and documentation, and sweat each other with a deal : first one to blow the whistle wins - holding back = jail time or death penalty.
They had advance notice. But booms and every other bit of equipment for plan B was not being mobilized at the first hint of trouble
Now if a pipe 'fell' down the well, and got stuck in the BOP - yeah not nice.
I hope they intercept the hole, plug it.
Then retrieve the BOP for a forensic investigation if the truth did not emerge.
I am old enough to remember the oil shocks of the 70's and the national response to them. People thought a little bit about efficiency, and for a few years demanded research funding on alternatives. The result was a 25% (or so) drop in demand for "oil" and its derivatives. Those events pissed off the top executives, so they began a comprehensive and sustained war against any credible replacement of their product, or even for ways to dilute their market power.
I have been thinking about what you are saying here for 30 years.
Every single year it's the same damn story: "Don't touch our energy supply! It will destroy the economy!"
Not once have I heard anyone with real influence say something new like "We should really be researching how to manage a transition away from what appears to be a limited, environmentally risky, and internationally de-stabilizing energy supply."
The incumbents (oil execs, etc.) have succeeded in preventing this society from even trying to figure out how to be economically viable if/when it becomes necessary to move beyond petroleum. So now we have people noting (unfortunately correctly) how dependent we are on the decisions of between 60 and 200 boards of directors of the major energy companies.
All that talk about "the market" is totally fucking bogus. The fact is that all of western society is stuck with the planning decisions of those executives. I hear libertarians and conservatives talk about the government all the time talking about "private industry" having the "freedom to innovate".
Sorry guys, those executives and a few others (the top few banking institutions, the top few media companies, etc.) are basically running things exactly the way the planned economies of yore were run, with the same effects: An absolutely perfect record of failure to manage change effectively.
Thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU!!! -Exxon.
... retirement with resources that would serve as comfortable retirement packages for, I'm guessing, 100 middle-class families.
Every time I hear this bullshit about the board serving stockholders and the CEO serving the board, I remember that they tend to downsize from 6 yachts to 4, and from 6 chalets to 2.
And we have politicians running for office in the upcoming U.S. elections demanding that "the government get its boot heel off BP's throat".
This is how we treat those whose decisions lead to catastrophic consequences for society and the people who actually have to work for a living. Drop their $200 million retirement package all the way down to $130 million. Tough shit for those executives.
Is anyone surprised they accidentally drilled into hell?
The United States Department of Justice has stated an ... interest ... in;
The events that lead to the explosions on the offshore rig, Deephorizon.
The CEO of BP PLC
The CFO of BP PLC
The COO of BP PLC
The Board Members and Chairman of BP PLC
Those in "interest" of BP PLC within the Government of the United Kingdom, i.e. House of Lords.
"There will be Blood!"
Solution?
Blow up the well.
In the meantime this looks like a good time for BP executives to hand out those $50,000,000.00 bonus checks.
thank you Regan/Cheney/Bush for all the "let the private industry self regulate" ideas you all implemented. thank god the free market is free to do as they please for maximum profits. Profit Uber Alles!