Well we always knew that the oil spill disaster would have severe repercussions for the industry, a fact now conceded by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA has warned that the spill from BP’s Macondo’s well “places the ability of the industry to access important new reserves on a knife edge“. Its latest monthly … Read More
BP
Scientists told to “Shut Up” Over Spill
Yesterday the environmental campaign group Greenpeace announced it was launching a three-month expedition to analyse the impact of BP’s oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico. The Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise will “host independent scientists who will be researching the impacts of oil and chemical dispersants on Gulf ecosystems and marine life,” said John … Read More
Lawyers not yet born look set to work on this one too
When the Exxon Valdez oil spill happened the chair of the Trustees panel said simply: “lawyers not yet born will work on this one”. His prediction essentially came true as the spill lawsuits grinded backwards and forwards through the courts as Exxon did everything in its power to delay and derail the legal process. As … Read More
“Of particular concern is the ability to stop a blowout once it has begun.”
When Time magazine compiled a list of its “Dirty Dozen” people it held responsible for BP’s oil spill it is hardly surprising that BP’s two recent CEOs John Browne and Tony Hayward topped the list. Number three on the list, though, was a name most people had never heard of: Chris Oynes. Oynes was the … Read More
The Special Relationship Stops at the Pump
Maybe it’s just the media, but Britain is obsessed over the strength of the so-called special relationship between the US and UK. In times of war and peace, through different Presidents and Prime Ministers, the bond is deemed to be strong. But what about that bond and oil spills?
Scientists Attack White House Spin
The fall-out continues from the US government report saying that 75 per cent of the spilled oil from BP’s macondo well has gone. Scientists say it is “just not true” that the vast majority of oil from the BP spill has gone and in fact the opposite is true – that up to 75 per … Read More
“Its too early to make any conclusions about the true scale of the damage.”
Yesterday the reporting on this issue went like this: BP has successfully plugged the well, and the US government said that 75 per cent of the oil had been cleaned up. This means the Gulf disaster was exaggerated, Tony Hayward was right after all about a small drop in a large ocean and, hey presto … Read More
The Good News, the Bad and the Ugly
First the good news. BP says its “static kill” on its Macondo well has succeeded so far, describing the moment as a “significant milestone”. The “static kill”, which started yesterday, involved pumping heavy drilling mud from the top of the well slowly down, pushing the oil back down into the reservoir. The oil was stopped … Read More
BP: The Biggest Polluter as spill confirmed as “world’s worst”
Whatever happens today when BP begins to finally cap its Macondo well with a “static kill”, latest estimates are that the spill is the world’s biggest accidental oil leak. An estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil gushed from the well before it was capped last month. When the spill first occurred back in April, people … Read More
“Carpet bombed” dispersants act as a “delivery system” for oil
As BP prepared over the next few days to permanently seal its Macondo well, there is growing evidence that its use of dispersants is going to have severe political, ecological and legal ramifications. The political fall-out from their use intensified last week. Ed Markey, the Chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce wrote to … Read More