The Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Obama green lights new BP Gulf oil drilling

November 2, 2011

The Obama administration has given BP the go-ahead to begin four new deep-sea oil exploration operations in the Gulf of Mexico only 18 months after a blowout on its Deepwater Horizon exploratory rig killed 11 workers and caused the worst oil spill in US history.

The drilling will take place in the Keathley Canyon 192 miles southwest of New Orleans in 6,000 feet of water—1,000 feet deeper than the Macondo well, site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The permits were approved by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), successor to the discredited Minerals Management Service (MMS), the regulatory agency that failed to correct numerous violations aboard the Deepwater Horizon.

The granting of new exploratory drilling rights to BP takes to a new level of shamelessness the subordination of the Obama administration to corporate interests. Not only has there has been no punishment for any executive from BP, Transocean, or Halliburton—the three corporations whose profit-driven negligence caused the April 20, 2010 blowout—but BP has now been given the green light to launch four new wells engaging in the same sort of deep-sea exploration as took place at the Macondo well.

Report cites BP responsibility in Gulf blowout

September 23, 2011

A report issued last week by a federal joint task force on the causes of the Macondo well blowout of April 20, 2010, which dumped hundreds of millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico over three months, has found BP primarily responsible for the disaster.

The report concerns itself primarily with the most immediate factors. A “central cause” of the blowout that led to the deaths of 11 workers aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, according to the report, was the failure of the cement casing around the well nearly one mile below the water’s surface. From that problem there followed a series of breakdowns and “mistakes” ultimately giving rise to one of the greatest environmental catastrophes in US history, asserts the Joint Investigation Team, a combination of investigators from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement and the US Coast Guard.

The report cites seven violations of federal regulations, including failure to operate in a safe manner, to inform federal authorities of changes in operating plans, to take necessary precautions against oil and gas leakage, and to carry out satisfactory tests of well pressure.

Gulf slick matches oil from BP spill

August 29, 2011

Independent scientists have confirmed that oil spotted on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico last week is a chemical match to oil from BP's Macondo well, the source of last year's horrific oil spill disaster.

Reports of oil visible in the area surrounding the Macondo well, permanently sealed since September of last year, began to emerge on August 19 when members of the Gulf Restoration Network observed patches of oil sheen during a flyover tour of the site.

Following this, on August 24, journalist Ben Raines of Alabama's Press-Register reported having seen hundreds of oil patches, roughly 4 to 5 feet across, spread over the surface of the water, all within a mile of the Macondo wellhead. “Most of the oil,” Raines wrote, “was located in a patch about 50 yards wide and a quarter of a mile long.” Oil rising to the surface was accompanied by a “pronounced and pungent petroleum smell,” he added.

One year since the BP oil spill: Obama “claims czar” provides no relief for the people of the Gulf

April 25, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

The central thrust of the Obama administration response to the Gulf oil disaster—protecting BP and the oil industry as a whole—has succeeded.

BP’s fourth-quarter profits for 2010 were up 30 percent over 2009. Flush with cash drawn from spiraling oil prices, over the past several months BP has gone on a global shopping spree, buying up billions of dollars worth of energy deals in Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, China, India and Australia. It remains the largest lease holder in the Gulf of Mexico, and has recently signaled that it intends to resume deep-sea exploration and production.

Nothing could more clearly express BP’s confidence that its financial liability for the Gulf oil disaster will be minimal. Under the Clean Water Act, it could face tens of billions in fines for the spill—but only if criminal negligence is established. There is virtually no chance the Obama administration will pursue such an outcome. From the beginning, the White House treated the disaster not as a crime, but an accident.

One year since the BP oil spill: The environmental disaster continues

April 22, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

The following is the third of a four-part series marking the first anniversary of the BP Gulf oil disaster. Part 1 was posted April 20; part 2 was posted April 21.

The release of 200 million gallons of crude oil and millions of gallons of chemical dispersant into the Gulf of Mexico over the space of three months last year makes the BP Gulf oil blowout one of the worst environmental catastrophes in human history.

BP and the Obama administration have from the beginning obscured the dangers posed by the spill to the ecosystem of the Gulf and to human health. This position was reiterated last week by Janet Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), who declared that the Gulf is “much better than people feared,” and by Obama “claims czar” Kenneth Feinberg, who predicted the Gulf would be back to normal by 2012.

In fact, the disastrous longer-term consequences of the BP blowout are only now beginning to be registered, in spite of efforts to suppress environmental study by NOAA and the US Justice Department.

One year since the BP oil spill: A colossal failure of the “free market”

April 20, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

This second installment in a four-part WSWS series marking the first anniversary of the BP Gulf oil disaster focuses on the role of deregulation in creating conditions for the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blowout. See also, “One year since the BP oil spill: Covering up a catastrophe.”

An overwhelming body of evidence from investigative hearings, media reports, and Deepwater Horizon rig workers demonstrates that the April 20 explosion and subsequent oil spill was a direct product of the negligence and cost-cutting of BP. In the months, days and hours leading up to the disaster, the energy giant ignored numerous warnings that a blowout was likely so that it could hurry its Macondo well into production.

This blatant disregard for workers’ and environmental safety was possible only due to the near total absence of government regulation. BP and rig operator Transocean could trample over safety concerns in the knowledge that there would be no consequences from the federal agency with primary jurisdiction over deep-sea oil drilling, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the US Department of the Interior.

One year since the BP oil spill: Covering up a catastrophe

April 19, 2011

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

This article, the first of a four-part series marking the first anniversary of the BP Gulf oil disaster, reviews the systematic corporate and government cover-up of the BP disaster and its consequences.

One year ago today, on April 20, 2010, an explosion on the BP-run Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers, injured 17 more, and led to the greatest single ecological catastrophe in US history. By the time the blown out Macondo well was capped on July 15, 2010, some 206 million gallons of oil had gushed out from the wellhead located one mile beneath the ocean’s surface and about 50 miles from Louisiana’s southeast coast. Millions more gallons of highly toxic chemical dispersant were dumped on the Gulf’s surface or released underwater.

BP asks permission to resume drilling in Gulf of Mexico

April 5, 2011

Oil giant BP is negotiating with US regulators to secure permission to resume oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

The drive to resume drilling comes even as investigations continue into the disaster that was precipitated by the explosion on April 20 last year of the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf, which killed 11 workers and led to the largest offshore oil spill in US history.

The US Justice Department opened criminal and civil investigations into the spill last June and filed a civil suit against the British-based company in December. Federal prosecutors are reportedly actively considering whether to bring manslaughter charges against the company and individual managers in connection with the disaster.

Former BP CEO Tony Hayward could face charges that his congressional testimony following the oil spill was intentionally misleading. Lower-level managers could also be charged, although manslaughter charges are considered more likely against the company rather than individual managers.

Deputy US Attorney General James Cole stated that the investigation had been consolidated within the Justice Department’s criminal division. “There is a lot of investigation yet to be done,” said Cole. “It’s going to head wherever the law and the facts take it.”

Obama administration approves first deepwater drilling permit since BP oil spill

March 1, 2011

The Obama administration has approved the first deepwater drilling permit for the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which caused the worst oil spill in history. The permit was granted to Houston, Texas-based oil and gas company Noble Energy Inc. It allows Noble Energy to resume drilling at a well it had begun work on just days before the BP oil spill and was forced to abandon when the Obama administration established a moratorium on offshore drilling in May 2010. Noble’s well is located less than 20 miles away from the site of BP’s Macondo well.

There are currently seven more permits under consideration by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), the agency which oversees offshore drilling, and that agency’s director, Michael Bromwich, expects more will be approved within weeks. With the BOEMRE decision, the Obama administration is making it clear that it is putting the debacle of the BP oil spill behind it and announcing that the Gulf of Mexico is once again open for business.

In effort to limit BP payout, compensation fund head says gulf recovery imminent

February 7, 2011

Kenneth Feinberg, the head of the Obama administration’s BP oil spill compensation fund, last week published a document that paves the way for a drastic reduction in BP’s payments to fishermen and business owners hurt by the oil spill.

The report proclaims a near-immediate recovery of the Gulf of Mexico, declaring, “Full economic recovery in the Gulf region is likely (but not certain) within two to three years from the date of the oil spill.”

As a result, the report concludes that “losses in 2011 will be approximately 70% of the actual documented losses in 2010.” Due to the rapid recovery assumed by the document, Feinberg plans to cap payments to twice the level paid out in 2010.

Feinberg’s conclusions about the oil spill recovery are based almost exclusively on the opinion of biologist Wes Tunnell, whom he commissioned to write a report on the economic impact of the spill. Tunnell carried out his study in only two weeks.

Among his findings, Tunnell estimated that “blue crab populations do not appear to have been significantly impacted by the DWH [Deep Water Horizon] oil spill,” and that “commercial finfish are not believed to have been significantly impacted... except with the possibility of those in the floating fish egg stage.”