Totally agree Candy. Did they think... it wont happen to us? Sorry.... plan for everything, even a disaster of monumental proportions! FOOLS.

BP boss Tony Hayward passes baton after horror week
By Allen Johnson From: AFP June 19, 2010 7:22am

EMBATTLED BP boss Tony Hayward is handing over the daily management of the complex operation to cap the Gulf of Mexico spill, a day after a public mauling by US lawmakers.

The news capped a nightmare week for the British energy giant that has left its public image in tatters, seen its shares rocked on the stock market and its top executives hauled to the White House.

BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said chief executive Hayward, a Briton, was handing over the running of the containment efforts to another top official, Bob Dudley, an American, on Friday.

"Right after the explosion, (Hayward) went out there and he has been leading the response ever since," Mr Svanberg told Sky News. "I think everyone believed it to be something we could deal with faster, then he would come back.

"And now he's been around for eight weeks, he's now handing over the daily operations to Bob Dudley, and he will be more home, and be there and be here," he told the British broadcaster.

The handover had been announced earlier this month, but no timing had been given, and Mr Svanberg's announcement came a day after Mr Hayward was pilloried by US lawmakers investigating the April explosion, which destroyed a BP-leased rig off Louisiana.

To the frustration and anger of a House of Representatives panel, Mr Hayward repeatedly refused to be drawn on the causes of the explosion and whether there had been any negligence on BP's part, drawing lawmakers' ridicule and scorn.

US experts believe between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels is spewing into the Gulf every day from the ruptured wellhead, and creeping ashore in four southern US states, shutting down the fishing industry and sullying tourist beaches.

BP executives agreed after talks with US President Barack Obama on Wednesday to set up a $US20 billion ($23 billion) escrow fund to help pay for the clean-up and compensation claims from Gulf residents facing economic ruin.

In a sign of some progress, officials said BP was now containing more of the spill as it works towards to capping it for good.

"In the 24-hour period ending at midnight last night, we were able to recover 25,000 barrels of oil," said Thad Allen, the US Coast Guard admiral coordinating the US response.

Mr Allen said experts estimated the flow to be "right now, the mid-30s - I think is the most probable - and as high as 60."

He stressed the first of two relief wells, seen as the only way to permanently cap the spill, was closing in on the original well.

"The first relief well is now 10,677 feet (3235 metres) below the sea floor (and) starting to close in on the well," Mr Allen said, without providing a time frame for when it would be completed.

On Thursday, Mr Allen said engineers were ahead of their mid-August target date for completing the drilling of the first relief well.

But in more bad news for BP, a third top credit agency slashed its creditworthiness because of the "worsening impact" of the disaster on its finances.

Moody's Investors Service cut BP's credit rating by three notches to A2 from Aa2 following a similar move by Fitch and Standard & Poor's this week.

"The rating agency believes that uncertainty over the ultimate cost for massive litigation claims and other contingent liabilities will be an overhang on BP's creditworthiness that will persist for years to come," it said.

Meanwhile, the intergovernmental International Energy Agency (IEA) warned against following the US lead and imposing a moratorium on offshore drilling.

Global oil output could slide by up to 900,000 barrels a day from projected levels for 2015 if oil producing countries take their cue from the six-month moratorium imposed by Obama in the wake of the disaster.

"If other countries like Angola, Brazil and the North Sea (countries) put on hold new offshore development and there is also one or two years of delay, the impact on global oil output might be 800,000 barrels a day to 900,000 barrels a day by 2015," IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka told Dow Jones.

London investors, however, shrugged off BP's nightmare week sending shares soaring to end up 4.09 per cent to 374.3 pence in late trading, having already gained 6.74 per cent on Thursday.

http://www.news.com.au/world/b.....frfkz0-1225881609367

BP fails to cough up on Gulf oil victims' claims
From: AP June 19, 2010 7:05am

THE US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee says data it has collected shows BP has paid less than 12 per cent of claims submitted by people and businesses arising from the Gulf oil spill.

The committee said only $US71 million ($81.76 million) out of an estimated $US600 million ($690.93 million) had been paid as of Tuesday.

BP did not make any payments in the first two weeks following the explosion and oil spill, the panel said.

Democratic Representative John Conyers said he's concerned that BP "is stiffing too many victims and shortchanging others".

The committee said BP hasn't made a single payment for bodily injury or diminished home property value. BP officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[url]http://www.news.com.au/world/bp-fails-to-cough-up-on-gulf-oil-victims-claims/story-e6frfkz0-1225881609333 [/url]  

Robots remove cap from BP oil well so plug can be installed
From: NewsCore July 11, 2010 6:56AM


BP said overnight that a containment cap had been successfully removed from the gushing Gulf of Mexico oil well, paving the way for a better-fitting plug to be installed.

Workers used underwater robots to cut away the existing cap. Live video feed of the spill showed remote controlled submarines carrying out the delicate procedure.

BP spokesman Mark Proegler confirmed that the cap had been fully removed, clearing the way for its replacement, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The development means that, in the short term, oil will gush into the Gulf waters unimpeded. But BP chiefs hope the improved, tighter dome will funnel more oil to its collection ships if it can be fitted successfully.

The new cap could be in place as soon as Monday but a permanent solution is still some way off, AFP reported.

"This new sealing cap has not been deployed at these depths or under these conditions, and there can be no assurance that the sealing cap will be successfully installed or installed within the anticipated timeframe," BP warned in a statement.

BP senior vice president Kent Wells said other options remained at the ready, including a new "top hat" containment system, if necessary.

"We always have backups for our backups," he told reporters.

Engineers nearly a mile above on the surface were manipulating undersea robots, which were expected to start work "within hours," Mr Wells said during a midday briefing.

Crews were rushing to take advantage of about a week of expected favorable weather conditions in the spill area for the new operation, expected to last between four and seven days, AFP said.

The existing cap, which sucks up to 25,000 barrels (one million gallons) of oil a day, was installed over a month ago but it allowed some of the hydrocarbons to escape because it was loosely fitted over a jagged cut of the well pipe.

BP is also working to connect the Helix Producer containment ship to another portion of the blown out well. The ship should be up and running by Sunday, officials said.

Government estimates for the disastrous spill, unleashed when the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig sank nearly three months ago, range between 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil (1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons) spewing into Gulf waters each day, based on interpretations of a live video feed of the leak.

The new cap and containment ship will raise containment capacity to 60,000 to 80,000 barrels (2.5 million to 3.4 million gallons) a day - in effect halting the spill that has imperiled fragile coastlines and wildlife across the Gulf Coast, according to officials.

An estimated 2.9 to 4.9 million barrels of oil have gushed into the Gulf waters since the spill began, and on day 82 of the spill only 755,900 barrels have been recovered.

http://www.news.com.au/breakin.....286487#ixzz0tKU0lLKU

President Obama has said 'BP will pay'. That is all very well but the damage to the eco-system cannot be fixed with money.

BP 'tried to silence scientists, academics on oil spill'
From correspondents in London From: AFP July 23, 2010 3:16PM

THE head of the American Association of Professors accused BP of trying to buy the silence of scientists and academics to protect itself after the Gulf oil spill, in a BBC interview.

"This is really one huge corporation trying to buy faculty silence in a comprehensive way," said Cary Nelson.

BP is facing lawsuits after the oil spill, which has destroyed the livelihoods of many people along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

A copy of a contract offered to scientists by BP, which the BBC said it had obtained, said scientists are not allowed to publish the research they do for the oil giant.

They are also not allowed to speak about the data for at least three years or until the US Government gives final approval for the company's restoration plan for the whole of the Gulf, said the British broadcaster.

BP said it had hired more than a dozen scientists "with expertise in the resources of the Gulf of Mexico," according to a statement given to the BBC.

Bob Shipp, the head of marine sciences at the University of South Alabama, said BP's lawyers had approached him and wanted his whole department.

"They contacted me and said we would like to have your department interact to develop the best restoration plan possible after this oil spill," he said.

"We laid the ground rules - that any research we did, we would have to take total control of the data, transparency and the freedom to make those data available to other scientists and subject to peer review.

"They left and we never heard back from them."

Nelson warned BP's actions could be "hugely destructive".

"Our ability to evaluate the disaster and write public policy and make decisions about it as a country can be impacted by the silence of the research scientists who are looking at conditions," he said.

"It's hugely destructive. I mean at some level, this is really BP versus the people of the US."

BP said it "does not place restrictions on academics speaking about scientific data," according to the BBC.

The environmental disaster began on April 20 when the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers.

The rig sank two days later rupturing the pipe that connected it to the well.

http://www.news.com.au/busines.....166824#ixzz0uUQTFK8O