Why are the Americans and media blaming BP for oil spill?

[evildrneil]

No, the rig is owned by Transocean, a Alabama founded NYSE company. Transocean own it, operate it, staff it and manage it. BP just pay for their services.

 

Transocean had the rig under a flag of convenience in the Marshall Islands, a popular tax haven. Transocean has its HQ in Switzerland, a popular tax haven. A Norwegian investigation found a "series of unfortunate circumstances" relating to Transocean after one of their ships sank killing the crew.

 

(Are you getting the picture here?)

 

Halliburton, a Texas based NYSE company (former CEO Dick Cheney is also a former US Defence Secretary implicated in dodgy Halliburton dealings in Iraq) designed and installed the grouting that failed so spectacularly under Transocean's rig.

 

(is the picture getting a bit clearer?)

 

The US Government have maintained standards and working practices that have long since been discarded in most other oil fields.

 

(clearer still?)

 

 

The point being made by various people is that BP might turn out to be a victim in all this, not the villain. Meanwhile they are spending a billion quid trying to put right mistakes that might turn out to be other peoples. It's easier to see this when the US Gvt isn't spoon feeding their particular brand of propaganda to the citizens.

 

Perhaps those fishermen should also be directing their anger at the US Government regulators who have failed them so miserably?

 

Time will tell who is to blame.

 

Since when has the truth got in the way of a good bit of buck passing???

[HappyHoosier]

There's no denying the oil spill is devastating for the environment and the economy in the Gulf region. But until something tragic happened, Americans were more than happy to use BP's energy without a second thought.

 

Obama's angry, "ass-kicking" attitude is obviously meant to shift blame away from him and the US government --- but is culpability the most important issue at this point? Finger-pointing is not only useless but hypocritical.

 

Clearly, some difficult questions have to be asked so this doesn't happen in the future --- but not now. For now, we should be focusing on stopping the leak, containing the oil, rescuing the wildlife and cleaning up the coastline.

[Agent Orange]

There's no denying the oil spill is devastating for the environment and the economy in the Gulf region. But until something tragic happened, Americans were more than happy to use BP's energy without a second thought.

 

Obama's angry, "ass-kicking" attitude is obviously meant to shift blame away from him and the US government --- but is culpability the most important issue at this point? Finger-pointing is not only useless but hypocritical.

 

Clearly, some difficult questions have to be asked so this doesn't happen in the future --- but not now. For now, we should be focusing on stopping the leak, containing the oil, rescuing the wildlife and cleaning up the coastline.

 

Welcome back!!!

[Harleyman]

The American reaction is staggering in its sheer stupidity and xenophobia. It looks like they want to totally destroy BP, in other words drive its share price so low that it gets taken over. I wonder if they have plans for Exxon to buy it or if it will be snapped up by the Chinese.

 

Obama seems to have lost the plot with his talk of "ass-kicking" and the latest plan that BP should compensate other oil companies that have had to lay off workers because of the moratorium on deep sea drilling announced by President Obama in response to the Gulf of Mexico spill.

 

This from a President that previously appeared to be intelligent

 

There's a lot of blame to go around here. Oil companies and not only BP have been drilling deeper and deeper into the ocean bed during the past several years. Exxon had a well that reached over 9,000 feet below the sea bed. The technology to deal with a major oil leak from the ocean bed was never developed by any of the major oil companies and the government with its deregulation of the oil industry under Bush never bothered to see that the technology was implemented.

The failure to do this was made painfully clear by Tony Haywards statement that "they did not have the tools in their tool box to deal with a situation like this"

 

It's BP's bad luck that this catastrophe happened to one of their oil rigs and Obama's bad luck that he inherited yet another mess from Bush and his administration.

[Alastair]

It's BP's bad luck that this catastrophe happened to one of their oil rigs and Obama's bad luck that he inherited yet another mess from Bush and his administration.

 

A very fair assessment, but Obama isn't doing himself any favours by being so anti-BP and in such a gung-ho manner. Who's he trying to impress? Certainly it wont be the Gulf Coast residents, half of whom rely on the oil industry for their livelihoods.

[Wildcat]

A very fair assessment, but Obama isn't doing himself any favours by being so anti-BP and in such a gung-ho manner. Who's he trying to impress? Certainly it wont be the Gulf Coast residents, half of whom rely on the oil industry for their livelihoods.

 

Why won't they be impressed by him saying BP should bear the costs of those made redundant by the spill?

 

I don't understand why people think BP should not be held responsible for this spill. The fact some of BPs contractors played a part in this does not remove responsibility from BP. BP has a claim against the contractors the America people have their claim against BP.

 

The more BP messes people around like lying about the extent of the crisis, the more angry people get. Whilst they aren't sorting this out the last thing they should be doing is paying dividends to their shareholders. They should be footing the bill, and looking to claim that money back off their contractors.

[atticus]

If BP stop paying dividends,as Obama demands.then so to should the American financial institutions that brought half the world to its knees with their toxic loans.

Hypocrisy from the president.

[Harleyman]

Why won't they be impressed by him saying BP should bear the costs of those made redundant by the spill?

 

I don't understand why people think BP should not be held responsible for this spill. The fact some of BPs contractors played a part in this does not remove responsibility from BP. BP has a claim against the contractors the America people have their claim against BP.

 

The more BP messes people around like lying about the extent of the crisis, the more angry people get. Whilst they aren't sorting this out the last thing they should be doing is paying dividends to their shareholders. They should be footing the bill, and looking to claim that money back off their contractors.

 

You hit the nail on the head

[Harleyman]

A very fair assessment, but Obama isn't doing himself any favours by being so anti-BP and in such a gung-ho manner. Who's he trying to impress? Certainly it wont be the Gulf Coast residents, half of whom rely on the oil industry for their livelihoods.

 

Plenty of people on the Gulf are as mad as hell with Obama and the government blaming them for "not doing enough" to clean up the up spill although the Coast Guard and hundreds of oil spill technicians and thousand of volunteers are working around the clock to install booms and rescue wild life. In situations like this the people affected, fishermen who've lost their livelihood, business owners who face mass cancellations from tourists and the people who are getting sick need something to focus their rage and frustration on.

 

Certainly there's no question that BP will have to foot the bill at the emd of it all. There's talk that BP might as a result go bankrupt. The day I see any giant oil company go bankrupt including BP I"ll run for County Dog Catcher

[Wildcat]

Plenty of people on the Gulf are as mad as hell with Obama and the government blaming them for "not doing enough" to clean up the up spill although the Coast Guard and hundreds of oil spill technicians and thousand of volunteers are working around the clock to install booms and rescue wild life. In situations like this the people affected, fishermen who've lost their livelihood, business owners who face mass cancellations from tourists and the people who are getting sick need something to focus their rage and frustration on.

 

Certainly there's no question that BP will have to foot the bill at the emd of it all. There's talk that BP might as a result go bankrupt. The day I see any giant oil company go bankrupt including BP I"ll run for County Dog Catcher

 

i doubt they will go bankrupt a danger is a Chinese oil company taking them over when the share prices are low. But the US won't be letting the Chinese in on gulf oil, no matter what the law says...