The BP Oil Spill

[the_future_modernes]

What the hell happened?

Graphic: Gulf of Mexico oil spill

Q&A: BP's role in Gulf of Mexico oil spill

What caused the oil spill? It seems workers on the Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig (not owned by BP) were attempting to cap this new exploratory well when it suffered a "blow" causing the fire and sinking of the rig and the rupture of the line which brings extracted oil to the shore. Investigators will want to see what caused the explosion.

What are BP's offshore operations? BP took over two big American oil companies in the 1990's, ARCO and AMOCO which gives BP access to many U.S. oil fields and refineries. There has been a slew of new oil and gas finds in the Gulf of Mexico in deep water. BP, like many of its competitors, is drilling exploration wells there to gauge the oil and gas potential. The well, known as Mississippi Canyon (MC) Block 252, is in the 'Macondo prospect'. The well in question is 65 percent owned by BP and has other oil companies as minority partners. It's the norm these days for competitors to invest in these speculative wells.
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What's the Fallout?


BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill likely to cost more than Exxon Valdez

• Oil rig explosion already causing political storm
• BP could face criminal charges and ban on activities in US

Britain's biggest oil company was tonight facing an environmental disaster expected to cost more than the Exxon Valdez tanker spill as thousands of tonnes of floating oil began to reach the US Gulf coast.

As several coastal states declared a state of emergency and dispatched clean-up crews, BP was desperately trying to stem not just the flow of crude from its damaged offshore platform but also to snuff out a growing political storm that has wiped billions of pounds off its share price.

President Barack Obama tonight sent officials from the US Department of Justice to monitor the company's handling of the crisis, while lawyers acting for victims of two earlier BP disasters in the US called for criminal charges and a ban on its activities there.

Fadel Gheit, an oil analyst at Oppenheimer & Co in New York, said the ultimate costs of dealing with the slick could rival that of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, which led to $3.5bn in clean-up costs and $5bn in legal and financial settlements. "This is a real pickle – it's a really challenging one. It's going to be difficult to choke off this spew of oil. Any solution is going to take time and I really think the cost here is going to be in the billions of dollars," he said.MORE

What's the Context?

How the Disaster in the Gulf Could Have Been Prevented: BP's Terrible Record on Environmental and Human Health :The company has found itself at the center of several of the nation's worst oil and gas–related disasters in the last five years.

Crude oil sits on the surface of the water that has leaked from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico on April 28, near New Orleans, Louisiana. US President Barack Obama started his key daily intelligence briefing Thursday with a 20-minute discussion of the oil spill, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Photo Credit: AFP/Getty Images - Chris Graythen

BP, the global oil giant responsible for the fast-spreading spill in the Gulf of Mexico that will soon make landfall, is no stranger to major accidents.In fact, the company has found itself at the center of several of the nation's worst oil and gas–related disasters in the last five years.

In March 2005, a massive explosion ripped through a tower at BP's refinery in Texas City, Texas, killing 15 workers and injuring 170 others. Investigators later determined that the company had ignored its own protocols on operating the tower, which was filled with gasoline, and that a warning system had been disabled.

The company pleaded guilty to federal felony charges and was fined more than $50 million by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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US oil spill crisis continues

On the British Elections and the killing of a racist S. African politician

[the_future_modernes]

The Listening Post - The UK election's TV twist

?On The Listening Post this week, how 90 minutes of TV airtime turned the British vote into a three-horse race. Plus, how the murder of one controversial politician opened up a race debate in the South African media.

Anybody in Britain? What do you think about the analysis here? Frankly I think they are too optimistic about the breaking power of the journalists because of the debates. Is it journalists who are asking the questions? If so, consider the choreographed, journalistically-managed nonsense that passed for debate in the US election.