BP Cannot Stop Lying About the Deepwater Horizon
Executive Summary
- The Lies of BP
- Lying Not New to BP
The Lies of BP
I was writing an article on the BP disaster, and I began listing how many times BP had lied.
The examples were so numerous that I decided to create a separate post on their lies, as the list was too long for my other article and would have been distracting. So here is the list.
Strangely, the BP CEO Tony Hayward stated that BP was responsible for cleaning up the spill, but that they were not responsible for the spill. (That is strange, how can they be responsible for cleaning up the spill if they were not responsible for the spill.) However, what the CEO failed to mention is that due to legislation passed during the Bush Administration, their liability is capped at $75 million. (although BP also says it will pay all legitimate costs, if true it brings up the question of why they lobbied so aggressively to cap their liabilities at $75 million).
Furthermore, according to maritime law, BP is in fact to blame.
As for liability, it primarily rests with BP according to this panel of experts. Maritime law has a precedent called “the anchored tanker” that says that the owner of the anchored tanker is liable for any damage resulting from it, even if that tanker is hit by another ship that was behaving in a reckless or negligent manner. BP is the owner of the anchored tanker in this case.
Moreover, the typical 100+ page drilling contract specifies that the rig owner (Transocean) is liable only for spills that happen in the course of the drilling operation (such as a tank of diesel rupturing and spilling overboard). In the case of a blowout, all drilling contracts specify that those are the responsibility of the oil company that has contracted the rig (BP in this case) and that most of them even specify that the oil company will “protect and indemnify” the rig owner even if they are shown to be reckless, negligent, or had behaved with gross misconduct.
https://teakdoor.com/world-news/69948-deepwater-horizon-blowout-3.html
- BP lied about how deep it was drilling to the government (exceeding its permit by 8000 feet)
- BP lied to Haliburton as to the depth of the well. Haliburton poured enough concrete to cap an 18,000 foot well, but the increased pressure blew the cap.
- Lied to the public about the severity of the spill, first stating that the well was capped. After this had turned out to be a lie, it stated that it was confident none of the oil would reach the shores of the US. These actions delayed the response.
- BP lied about the size of the leak. After denying there was a leak, they estimated the lead was 1000 barrels per day, the government then estimated 5000 barrels per day, and this was used for some time. BP has repeatedly stated that the size of the leak is not material. However, estimates by Steve Wereley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue, has estimated the leak to be 3 million gallons, (46,800 barrels or almost 9x the 5000 barrel estimate)
- BP has footage of underwater video that can be used to estimate the real rate of oil coming out of the rupture. However, it is not sharing this video so an accurate estimate can be made.
- The BP CEO Tony Hayward lied when he was confronted by the fact the BP was making fishermen sign liability waivers and said that “he had just been alerted to it.” Tony stated that at the time they were just using “the standard form.” However, at the same time, BP is offering liability waivers for $5000 to Alabamans. This practice continues.
The Tony Hayward, in an interview about the spill, went as far as to say that BP was making great strides in safety. That is strange since they have one of the worst safety records in the industry. He also left out that the Health and Safety Executive of England publicly stated that BP was failing to operate rigs and other offshore equipment to appropriate standards. Furthermore, a whistleblower who worked for BP has declared BP’s operation of oil rigs as completely unsafe.
It was then that the whistle-blower, who was hired to oversee the company’s databases that housed documents related to its Atlantis project, discovered that the drilling platform had been operating without a majority of the engineer-approved documents it needed to run safely, leaving the platform vulnerable to a catastrophic disaster that would far surpass the massive oil spill that began last week following a deadly explosion on a BP-operated drilling rig. – TruthOut
Lying Not New to BP
- BP has a long history of lying.
- BP has rebranded itself as “Beyond Petroleum,” which is strange, because it spends less than 4% of its expenditures on alternative fuels, and produces almost no alternative fuels.
BP was found negligent in the Exxon Valdez spill (where it was responsible for the contract for spill remediation), having lied to the US government about the number of booms, cleanup vessels, and trained crews that it had on call in the area. In fact, to cut costs, BP had no booms and had fired all the trained crews and replaced them with untrained workers. The extensive lies of BP with regards to the Valdez are chronicled in this excellent article in TruthOut.
Be careful when listening to Tony Hayward. You can tell when he is lying because…his lips are moving.
Conclusion
BP is full of shit. Utterly and comprehensively. The entire organization is unethical, and they will clearly do anything for cash. If BP says something, most likely the opposite is true. Their executives are corporate criminals, and until we begin to fine companies and jail their executives, we can expect this bullshit to continue.
References
https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill
https://www.truthout.org/slick-operator-the-bp-ive-known-too-well59178