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

[Alastair]

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.

 

They won't be impressed by Obama saying that BP should pay for people made redundant by Obama's kneejerk reaction in banning all deepwater drilling in the Gulf because those people down there understand the oil industry. They invented it. They know that they've been made redundant by Obama and not by BP.

 

There are around 30,000 US employes of BP compared with around 10,000 in the UK.

 

It wasn't BPs fault that the blowout happened, it was something that was always going to happen sometime in the USA because of their lax regulatory system.

 

From what I can see BP are doing everything they can to contain the leak, thankfully with some success recently. Meanwhile Obama does nothing constructive.

[Suffragette1]

They won't be impressed by Obama saying that BP should pay for people made redundant by Obama's kneejerk reaction in banning all deepwater drilling in the Gulf because those people down there understand the oil industry. They invented it. They know that they've been made redundant by Obama and not by BP.

 

There are around 30,000 US employes of BP compared with around 10,000 in the UK.

 

It wasn't BPs fault that the blowout happened, it was something that was always going to happen sometime in the USA because of their lax regulatory system.

 

From what I can see BP are doing everything they can to contain the leak, thankfully with some success recently. Meanwhile Obama does nothing constructive.

 

My understanding is that the blow out safety valve preventer was the responsibility of Transocean. Rigorous maintenance procedures were not carried out in favour of maximising output and optimising drilling potential by not putting the rig to dock to carry out a full maintenance. But hey, what do I know, I'm only married to someone who works in the industry?

[Alastair]

My understanding is that the blow out safety valve preventer was the responsibility of Transocean. Rigorous maintenance procedures were not carried out in favour of maximising output and optimising drilling potential by not putting the rig to dock to carry out a full maintenance. But hey, what do I know, I'm only married to someone who works in the industry?

 

But BP would ultimately be responsible for the blowout preventer tests under US regulations rather than Transocean. My understanding is that they got an exemption from the US Authorities so they didn't have to do a full test.

 

Whether or not that had anything to do with the blowout will come out later. So far I haven't heard a convincing explanation of the blowout as there were so many things that had to go wrong simultaneously it was like winning the lottery in reverse.

[Mr_Squirrel]

My understanding is that the blow out safety valve preventer was the responsibility of Transocean. Rigorous maintenance procedures were not carried out in favour of maximising output and optimising drilling potential by not putting the rig to dock to carry out a full maintenance. But hey, what do I know, I'm only married to someone who works in the industry?

 

Bold...

 

Fix the problem then, smartypants

[Wildcat]

They won't be impressed by Obama saying that BP should pay for people made redundant by Obama's kneejerk reaction in banning all deepwater drilling in the Gulf because those people down there understand the oil industry. They invented it. They know that they've been made redundant by Obama and not by BP.

 

There are around 30,000 US employes of BP compared with around 10,000 in the UK.

 

It wasn't BPs fault that the blowout happened, it was something that was always going to happen sometime in the USA because of their lax regulatory system.

 

From what I can see BP are doing everything they can to contain the leak, thankfully with some success recently. Meanwhile Obama does nothing constructive.

 

Are you sure he has banned all deepwater drilling? So far as I know it is only new drilling that has been banned. Something most people would consider common sense, whilst they look at the regulations you say are an accident waiting to happen.

 

Obama should probably go further and look at what his regulators are up to and extend the ban to BP's Atlantis rig that is according to Kenneth Abbott, the project control supervisor for BP until they sacked him because of his safety concerns, "flying blind, and have no way to assure the safety of offshore drilling operations.".

 

The federal regulators appear to have whitewashed their investigation of the rig. Despite an internal memo from BP talking about the rig having a potential for "catastrophic operator errors".

 

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/06/next-deepwater-horizon

 

According to Abbott, the BP Atlantis lacks more than 6,000 documents that are key to operating the rig safely. Abbott has said that the vast majority of the project's subsea piping and instrument diagrams were not approved by engineers, and the safety systems are out of date.

 

This example shows that BP has not just been behaving recklessly but has been in breach of the existing lax regulations. Just like they were in Alaska 4 years ago when they were found criminally liable.

[Harleyman]

They won't be impressed by Obama saying that BP should pay for people made redundant by Obama's kneejerk reaction in banning all deepwater drilling in the Gulf because those people down there understand the oil industry. They invented it. They know that they've been made redundant by Obama and not by BP.

 

There are around 30,000 US employes of BP compared with around 10,000 in the UK.

 

It wasn't BPs fault that the blowout happened, it was something that was always going to happen sometime in the USA because of their lax regulatory system.

 

From what I can see BP are doing everything they can to contain the leak, thankfully with some success recently. Meanwhile Obama does nothing constructive.

 

 

What constructive things would you expect him to do other than provide all the federal help possible which does not include experts and engineers in the oil industry which is BP's field of expertise and not the US government's?

[Alastair]

Are you sure he has banned all deepwater drilling? So far as I know it is only new drilling that has been banned. Something most people would consider common sense, whilst they look at the regulations you say are an accident waiting to happen.

 

Obama should probably go further and look at what his regulators are up to and extend the ban to BP's Atlantis rig that is according to Kenneth Abbott, the project control supervisor for BP until they sacked him because of his safety concerns, "flying blind, and have no way to assure the safety of offshore drilling operations.".

 

The federal regulators appear to have whitewashed their investigation of the rig. Despite an internal memo from BP talking about the rig having a potential for "catastrophic operator errors".

 

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/06/next-deepwater-horizon

 

 

 

This example shows that BP has not just been behaving recklessly but has been in breach of the existing lax regulations. Just like they were in Alaska 4 years ago when they were found criminally liable.

 

 

I'm quite prepared to believe that rigs in US waters aren't safe. I've worked on them and their attitude to safety is shocking compared to what we have here in Europe. Our regulations came from our own local disaster, which was the responsibility a US company whose executives fled the country and couldn't be extradited.

 

That company was Occidental and the disaster was Piper Alpha which was far worse than the Deepwater Horizon blowout. It seems every country has to have its own disaster before proper regulations are put in place.

[Alastair]

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What constructive things would you expect him to do other than provide all the federal help possible which does not include experts and engineers in the oil industry which is BP's field of expertise and not the US government's?

 

I would be impressed if he behaved like a proper grown up. He's an intelligent bloke, but he's now reacting to 24 hour news coverage rather than helping the situation. His apparent intention to destroy BP will hurt more Americans than it helps as it's largely a US owned company.

[Harleyman]

[QUOTE=Alastair;6342900]I'm quite prepared to believe that rigs in US waters aren't safe. I've worked on them and their attitude to safety is shocking compared to what we have here in Europe. Our regulations came from our own local disaster, which was the responsibility a US company whose executives d flethe country and couldn't be extradited.

 

That company was Occidental and the disaster was Piper Alpha which was far worse than the Deepwater Horizon blowout. It seems every country has to have its own disaster before proper regulations are put in place.

 

Neverthe less there are a few thousand rigs in the Gulf alone and have been for many years without any accident of this kind happening before. If as you say rigs in US waters aren't safe then these kind of catastophes would have logically happened before and the Gulf staes swallowed up in oil

[Suffragette1]

Neverthe less there are a few thousand rigs in the Gulf alone and have been for many years without any accident of this kind happening before. If as you say rigs in US waters aren't safe then these kind of catastophes would have logically happened before and the Gulf staes swallowed up in oil

I imagine that this is because in all likelihood, it was a combination of two, or possibly more, factors that led to catastrophic failure. Time will tell, they should know more when the blowout preventer is recovered.