Gulf coast oil spill

[Flickster]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

OK Flickster, fess up... are you in the oil business?

Not directly - provide services to engineering firms, some of which do oil & gas related projects

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yeah, you seemed to be up on the subject. Thanks for the information.
BP is responsible, but I think it's Haliburton's fault, from what I've read.

[classicman]

Criminy - I saw regular unleaded for $3.09 on my way home today WTF?

[classicman]

BP: Big Fines, Good News
Brian Wingfield 10.25.07

It's been rough few years for BP. Allegations of illegal propane trading. Massive oil spills in Alaska. A deadly explosion at a Texas refinery. All this since 2003. Such catastrophes would cripple or kill most companies.

In an effort to wipe the slate clean and return to the business of making money - which it seems to do very well - the London-based oil and gas giant agreed Thursday to:

*pay $373 million in fines and restitution for violating U.S. environmental laws and defrauding customers through manipulation of energy markets. In addition,
*four of its former traders were charged with wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiring to corner the propane market.

*The company must pay must pay $50 million for a March 2005 explosion at the company's Texas City refinery that killed 15 contractors and injured more than 170 others.

The fine is part of BP's penalty for pleading guilty to violating the Clean Air Act when it failed to keep dangerous gases from being released at the refinery. The fine--the largest ever assessed under this particular environmental law--comes with a three year probationary period. BP will pay:

*$12 million in criminal fines, as well as
*$4 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and
*$4 million to the state of Alaska, for violating the Clean Water Act and for its criminal liability due to crude oil leaks from its pipelines in 2006. The fines in this case are part of a separate guilty plea by BP.

Finally, the company agreed to pay:
*$100 million criminal penalty fee, plus
*$25 million to the U.S. Postal Inspection Consumer Fraud Fund,
as well as a
*$125 million civil penalty to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission so the company can defer prosecution in an Illinois court for conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud.

And if that weren't enough, the company must pay
*$53 million to victims of its propane trading scheme
the largest manipulation settlement in the history of the CFTC.

"These agreements are an admission that, in these instances, our operations failed to meet our own standards and the requirements of the law," said BP America Chairman and President Bob Malone, in a statement. "For that, we apologize."

BP's recent run-ins with the law began more than four years ago, when propane traders tried to sell the fuel at an artificially high price in 2003 and 2004. The refinery explosion the following year was the next blow for the company. But in March 2006 came the biggest PR disaster of all: a 200,000-gallon oil spill onto an Alaskan tundra and frozen lake, the biggest in the history of the state's North Slope. Five months later, a 1,000 gallon oil leak exposed further negligence of BP's pipelines.

Sounds like quite a drubbing for any company to take. And BP has already coughed up at least $1.6 billion to compensate the victims of the explosion, the company says.

Link

A link with some of BP's history and its fines/penalties.

BP had just come off probation in 2008.

**Note the date of this article...(top of the page)

[xoxoxoBruce]

And it looks like drumroll

[classicman]

But the date says 11/05/2010????

[piercehawkeye45]

May 11th 2010 is 11/05/10 in many countries.

[tw]

Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45

May 11th 2010 is 11/05/10 in many countries.

I repeatedly write it as 11 Sept for the same reason.

NATO, for example, does not permit 11/05/10 or 05/11/10 phrasing because the date (as shown on the picture) is how most of the world does it. As if we do not create enough confusion in the world with inches, pounds, and miles. Or waste a perfectly good spacecraft to Mars because America still uses different number systems.

One number that is standard - barrels. And British Petroleum still cannot get it right?

[Flint]

Originally Posted by tw

One number that is standard - barrels. And British Petroleum still cannot get it right?

Ah. Ha ha. I love a funny tw.

[tw]

What happens when an industry benchmark is based in a drinking song. The Barrel Polka:
Roll out the barrel.
We'll have a barrel of fun. ...

Well, the president got pissed at them today. Dad just does not understand how much fun they are having down there in New Orleans.

[xoxoxoBruce]

It's only 70,000 barrels a day.

[classicman]

[tw]

It's called spin. Tell someone something. Then facts based in reality that arrive later will be challenged. Humans just do not challenge the first fact with equal vigor. From the NY Times of 14 May 2010:

Size of Oil Spill Underestimated, Scientists Say
Two weeks ago, the government put out a round estimate of the size of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico: 5,000 barrels a day. Repeated endlessly in news reports, it has become conventional wisdom.

But scientists and environmental groups are raising sharp questions about that estimate, declaring that the leak must be far larger. They also criticize BP for refusing to use well-known scientific techniques that would give a more precise figure. ...

BP later acknowledged to Congress that the worst case, if the leak accelerated, would be 60,000 barrels a day, a flow rate that would dump a plume the size of the Exxon Valdez spill into the gulf every four days. BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, has estimated that the reservoir tapped by the out-of-control well holds at least 50 million barrels of oil.

So is this an Exxon Valdez scale disaster? No. Other factors apply such as this is 'sweeter' oil, water temperature, and oil dissipation causing natural actions to become more effective.

[gvidas]

Can someone contextualize this a bit for me?

How much would the Deepwater Horizon have been pumping, if all things were perfect, per day? or: How does the spill compare to an oil rig that's just dumping it over the side?

How large is the deposit / reservoir of oil that is being tapped? or: how much oil will be left after they cap this thing with the relief well in 2 months?

[Griff]

Good questions.