Gulf Oil Disaster - Obama "to make BP pay"

darkman2

The British had better be concerned about their pension funds because now it is reckoned between 35 and 60,000 barrels are leaking per day into the Gulf. Obama says BP will pay for the disaster. This is almost certainly the end of BP......but what about Obama as the disaster continues to unfold? Is he seen as competent to deal with this?

phantom_lord

darkman2 wrote: »

This is almost certainly the end of BP

Based on what? They had profits of $26.43 billion last year from revenues of $246 billion. Gonna take a lot more than that to sink BP.

Overheal

tbh, http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055924064

Im not convicted one way or the other. Though I can be sure of a few things, like that Obama will not use a nuclear device to stop the leak - thats entirely out of the question; and all this pressure that the US gov is putting publicly on BP is hurting it immensely in the market. Conservatives seem to argue that the Obama administration is hurting the people that work for BP and all the bla bla bla. Meanwhile the tourism industry on the Gulf Coast from Key West to Corpus Christi is getting affected and in many cases completely dying out.

Pensioners in BP will be fine if the company doesnt go Bankrupt. And BP should very easily have the costs to cover this disaster [edit: thank you Phantom_Lord]. But I am not sure the same can be said for millions who live along the Gulf, especially for most businesses that rely heavily on tourism, and have already had 2 awful years because of the stock crash.

Manic Moran

I don't see quite how Obama will 'make BP pay'. The whole ex post facto thing in the Constitution...

Best I can think would be a civil suit, but even at that, the Federal Government would have to show damages, so it would really be an issue of the States, businesses and private individuals gathering together for a class action, not the Federal government.

NTM

Fratton Fred

People tend to forget that BP is 39% US owned as well, not forgetting that the actual operators of the rig are 100% US and they will, no doubt end up footing a big chunk of the bill as they are the ones who actually caused all of this.

dan_d

Fratton Fred wrote: »

People tend to forget that BP is 39% US owned as well, not forgetting that the actual operators of the rig are 100% US and they will, no doubt end up footing a big chunk of the bill as they are the ones who actually caused all of this.

I get the impression that fact is being blithely ignored.

Smcgie

The American investment banks are shorting BP and downgrading their credit ratings.

The more obamma shouts and screams the more money the US makes.

conorhal

Fratton Fred wrote: »

People tend to forget that BP is 39% US owned as well, not forgetting that the actual operators of the rig are 100% US and they will, no doubt end up footing a big chunk of the bill as they are the ones who actually caused all of this.

Which makes Obama's reaction look more and more like old school Chicago politicking.
As the times pointed out, Obama's hysterical comparisons of this disaster to 9/11 stand in stark contrast to the American reaction to the horrors wrought when American corporation like Union Carbide when it kills 25,000 people in the Bhopal disaster. Obama had nothing to say about the prosecutions brought by the Indian government over that last year.
A smoke an mirrors excercise methinks.

The_Minister

Fratton Fred wrote: »

People tend to forget that BP is 39% US owned as well, not forgetting that the actual operators of the rig are 100% US and they will, no doubt end up footing a big chunk of the bill as they are the ones who actually caused all of this.

AFAIK BP has fairly wide indemnities in place for those companies.

mike65

Obama is protecting Exxon.

Banned Account

The story is beginning to wear to be honest.

Obama - "You better fix it"

BP - "We're trying"

Obama - "You better fix it faster"

BP - "We're trying"

Obama - "Damn it, I'll kick your ass if you don't fix it"

BP - "We're trying, we don't actually know how to fix it"

Obama - "You'd better know"

BP - ""

Obama - "You're gonna pay for the clean up"

BP - "Ok"

Obama - "I'll make you pay for everything"

BP - "Ok"

Obama - "You'd better fix it"

...

To be honest, he should stop drawing attention to the fact that the only thing we know is the fact that no-one knows how to fix it. BP, as far as I can make out have not contested the fact that they will be responsible for every penny of the clean up and compensation act. They are currently compensating all the fishermen are they not?

Actually, I'm sad to say it, but I had high hopes for Obama but he's starting to piss me off now

northwest100

Gulf Oil Spill "Could Go on for years and years"

--- snip

In a recent discussion, Vladimir Kutcherov, Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and the Russian State University of Oil and Gas, predicted that the present oil spill flooding the Gulf Coast shores of the United States “could go on for years and years … many years.”

According to Kutcherov, a leading specialist in the theory of abiogenic deep origin of petroleum, “What BP drilled into was what we call a ‘migration channel,’ a deep fault on which hydrocarbons generated in the depth of our planet migrate to the crust and are accumulated in rocks, something like Ghawar in Saudi Arabia.”

Ghawar, the world’s most prolific oilfield has been producing millions of barrels daily for almost 70 years with no end in sight.

According to the abiotic science, Ghawar like all elephant and giant oil and gas deposits all over the world, is located on a migration channel similar to that in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.

---

end snip

well, how long will it be before it starts washing up on ireland's coast?

Great job...

LordSutch

Transocean fire hit oil rig (Reuters) – Eleven workers were missing and 17 injured in an explosion at a Transocean oil drilling rig off Louisiana, and crews were fighting the fire 16 hours later, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday. An estimated 126 people were aboard the Deepwater Horizon at the time of the explosion, reported about 10 p.m. local time Tuesday. The rig was drilling for BP Plc 42 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, in Mississippi Canyon block 252, Transocean said."]21 Apr Workers missing after blast, fire hit oil rig Posted under: accident, injuries, oil rig accident, oil rig blast, work accident, worker's compensation by DreamLegalTeam April 21, 2010 By Reuters.com oil rig (Reuters) – Eleven workers were missing and 17 injured in an explosion at a Transocean oil drilling rig off Louisiana, and crews were fighting the fire 16 hours later, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday. An estimated 126 people were aboard the Deepwater Horizon at the time of the explosion, reported about 10 p.m. local time Tuesday. The rig was drilling for BP Plc 42 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, in Mississippi Canyon block 252, Transocean said.



Just curious to know where 'Transocean' fits in with all the blame ?

steelcityblues

This whole incident proves that Obama can't come to a quick, concrete decision, and is beholden to others!

Some posting here who actually 'believed' in him in the first place.

fontanalis

steelcityblues wrote: »

This whole incident proves that Obama can't come to a quick, concrete decision, and is beholden to others!

Some posting here who actually 'believed' in him in the first place.

A decison about what? It's not like he or BP for that matter have a plug sitting in the back shed they decided not to use.
The only way this could have been avoided is if he said at the start of his term that he wanted every company involved in this type of drilling to prove they are ready for this type of emergency. If that would have happended it would have turned into a game of spot the communist, like the health care deabte.

fontanalis

Fratton Fred wrote: »

People tend to forget that BP is 39% US owned as well, not forgetting that the actual operators of the rig are 100% US and they will, no doubt end up footing a big chunk of the bill as they are the ones who actually caused all of this.

Yeah but criticising BP was unamerican according to Rand Paul.

Overheal

Camelot wrote: »

Transocean fire hit oil rig (Reuters) – Eleven workers were missing and 17 injured in an explosion at a Transocean oil drilling rig off Louisiana, and crews were fighting the fire 16 hours later, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday. An estimated 126 people were aboard the Deepwater Horizon at the time of the explosion, reported about 10 p.m. local time Tuesday. The rig was drilling for BP Plc 42 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, in Mississippi Canyon block 252, Transocean said."]21 Apr Workers missing after blast, fire hit oil rig Posted under: accident, injuries, oil rig accident, oil rig blast, work accident, worker's compensation by DreamLegalTeam April 21, 2010 By Reuters.com oil rig (Reuters) – Eleven workers were missing and 17 injured in an explosion at a Transocean oil drilling rig off Louisiana, and crews were fighting the fire 16 hours later, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday. An estimated 126 people were aboard the Deepwater Horizon at the time of the explosion, reported about 10 p.m. local time Tuesday. The rig was drilling for BP Plc 42 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, in Mississippi Canyon block 252, Transocean said.



Just curious to know where 'Transocean' fits in with all the blame ?

The head of BP Group told CNN's Brian Todd on April 28 that the accident could have been prevented, and focused blame on rig owner Transocean.[27] Transocean have also come under fire from lawyers representing fishing and tourist businesses hit by the spill and the Department of Justice for seeking to use an 1851 law to restrict its liability for economic damages to $26.7 million.[28]
On May 14, 2010 U.S. president Barack Obama stated, "...executives of BP and Transocean and Halliburton falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else," when referring to the congressional hearings held during the continued flow of oil in the Gulf of Mexico resulting from an oil rig platform explosion. "The American people could not have been impressed with that display, and I certainly wasn't."

Fratton Fred

Camelot wrote: »

Transocean fire hit oil rig (Reuters) – Eleven workers were missing and 17 injured in an explosion at a Transocean oil drilling rig off Louisiana, and crews were fighting the fire 16 hours later, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday. An estimated 126 people were aboard the Deepwater Horizon at the time of the explosion, reported about 10 p.m. local time Tuesday. The rig was drilling for BP Plc 42 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, in Mississippi Canyon block 252, Transocean said."]21 Apr Workers missing after blast, fire hit oil rig Posted under: accident, injuries, oil rig accident, oil rig blast, work accident, worker's compensation by DreamLegalTeam April 21, 2010 By Reuters.com oil rig (Reuters) – Eleven workers were missing and 17 injured in an explosion at a Transocean oil drilling rig off Louisiana, and crews were fighting the fire 16 hours later, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday. An estimated 126 people were aboard the Deepwater Horizon at the time of the explosion, reported about 10 p.m. local time Tuesday. The rig was drilling for BP Plc 42 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, in Mississippi Canyon block 252, Transocean said.



Just curious to know where 'Transocean' fits in with all the blame ?

It is their rig, it was their people who decided to cut corners which caused the accident. it was their fault.

But, from what I can gather, BP own the dinosaur juice they were extracting, so they are liable.

Banned Account

Fratton Fred wrote: »

It is their rig, it was their people who decided to cut corners which caused the accident. it was their fault.

But, from what I can gather, BP own the dinosaur juice they were extracting, so they are liable.

I believe that there is a law of agency which prevents a principle from absolving themselves from liability arising out of the acts of their agents - those claiming damage simply look at the parties in place a pursue those with the deepest pockets.

Fratton Fred

Fitzcaraldo wrote: »

I believe that there is a law of agency which prevents a principle from absolving themselves from liability arising out of the acts of their agents - those claiming damage simply look at the parties in place a pursue those with the deepest pockets.

that's my understanding, but liability and blame are two different things.

Banned Account

Fratton Fred wrote: »

that's my understanding, but liability and blame are two different things.

Possibly not in the eyes of the court though - not guilty does not mean innocent.

TheInquisitor

What'll happen with the BP spill is there'll be a political agreement between Cameron and Obama to sort out the mess otherwise the UK will just pull out of Afghanistan and tell the US to go FCUK themselves. Its crazy has america doesnt give a crap when they **** on someones door step i.e. the Bhopal disaster in which 10's of thousands of people actually died when a problem a lot smaller than that in which 17 people died suddenly they go to war with the UK. Its bloody crazy.

Judgement Day

All the politicisation of this environmental disaster would be laughable if it were not so serious. Instead of Obama trying to appear all statesman like wouldn't it be better if instructed all US agencies to get stuck in and provide any help that BP need. It isn't like BP have said they won't accept liability - as far as I understand it they have fully accepted responsibility and have agreed to pay to put things right.

dlofnep

Fitzcaraldo wrote: »

The story is beginning to wear to be honest.

Obama - "You better fix it"

BP - "We're trying"

Obama - "You better fix it faster"

BP - "We're trying"

Obama - "Damn it, I'll kick your ass if you don't fix it"

BP - "We're trying, we don't actually know how to fix it"

Obama - "You'd better know"

BP - ""

Obama - "You're gonna pay for the clean up"

BP - "Ok"

Obama - "I'll make you pay for everything"

BP - "Ok"

Obama - "You'd better fix it"

...

To be honest, he should stop drawing attention to the fact that the only thing we know is the fact that no-one knows how to fix it. BP, as far as I can make out have not contested the fact that they will be responsible for every penny of the clean up and compensation act. They are currently compensating all the fishermen are they not?

Actually, I'm sad to say it, but I had high hopes for Obama but he's starting to piss me off now

Obama has to say something, because his handling of it is being criticised. If he says nothing he will be criticised. If he says something he is criticised. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

Jonny7

I second that, I'm not sure what more Obama could've done in this situation?

Any suggestions from the right? build more aircraft carriers, scrap health care and invade Iran? aahh thought so.

Livvie

TheInquisitor wrote: »

What'll happen with the BP spill is there'll be a political agreement between Cameron and Obama to sort out the mess otherwise the UK will just pull out of Afghanistan and tell the US to go FCUK themselves. .

I wish.

Fratton Fred wrote: »

It is their rig, it was their people who decided to cut corners which caused the accident. it was their fault.

But, from what I can gather, BP own the dinosaur juice they were extracting, so they are liable.

Is that right? It doesn't seem particularly fair.

Fratton Fred

Livvie wrote: »

Is that right? It doesn't seem particularly fair.

BP basically outsourced the extraction of the oil to Transocean, but (and this is a guess) BP probably had the licence which is why it is their responsibility.

Congress are asking some very interesting questions, such as why did you choose to cut corners against the advice of your own people? This could be playing into BP's hands as it could show that they told Transocean what measures to take and Transocean chose to ignore them.

It sets the law suit up nicely.

Riddle101

This whole situation is a very sticky one, and one that will proberly take a year to fix, maybe more(especially if Hurricane season has anything to say about it) But just look at what we're seeing. BP are in a hell of a lot of trouble, the Gulf has been f*cked, The Obama administration is beginning to show signs of cracks and worst of all nobody knows what to do. There are more but for godsake let's just hope it can be fixed.

I don't know how Obama can make BP pay anymore. He's really just trying to show a tough side because he dosen't want people to see he has no clue what to do either. My best bet is, he's going to make sure BP spend billions of dollars on this whole situation for years after the whole mess is cleared up.

fontanalis

Riddle101 wrote: »

This whole situation is a very sticky one, and one that will proberly take a year to fix, maybe more(especially if Hurricane season has anything to say about it) But just look at what we're seeing. BP are in a hell of a lot of trouble, the Gulf has been f*cked, The Obama administration is beginning to show signs of cracks and worst of all nobody knows what to do. There are more but for godsake let's just hope it can be fixed.

I don't know how Obama can make BP pay anymore. He's really just trying to show a tough side because he dosen't want people to see he has no clue what to do either. My best bet is, he's going to make sure BP spend billions of dollars on this whole situation for years after the whole mess is cleared up.

Funny alot of the people complaining about him doing nothing aren't fans of big government. What was their idols famous saying; the nine scariest words are "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help'
Fickle doesn't begin to describe it.