BP

Lawsuit Claims Former BP Employee Was Fired For Refusing To Skew Clean-Up Data

Jillian Rayfield | January 25, 2012, 8:56AM

Updated January 25, 2012 at 11:29 am.

A former employee of BP America is suing the oil company for wrongful termination, alleging that he was canned for refusing to alter data about the progress of the clean-up of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

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BP

Spill Victims: BP Fund An "Abject Failure" In Need of Oversight

Zoe Schlanger | July 26, 2011, 1:47PM

Spill victims suing BP in the Deepwater Horizon case have filed a joint brief that claims the oil company is implementing a deeply flawed and deliberately confusing claims process, and is taking advantage of their economic situation by offering a one-time low-figure lump sum from its relief fund in exchange for their signature on releases promising no future claims.

The $20 billion dollar fund headed by high-profile lawyer Kenneth R. Feinberg is under attack by the claimants as an "abject failure" for leaving some 84% of initial "interim" claims unfiled or unpaid, which the brief claims is illegal.

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TransOcean LTD.

Rig Survivors Can't Have Claims Heard Until They Go To The Doctor, Says Transocean

Zoe Schlanger | July 8, 2011, 3:50PM

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig sinks; the Transocean form presented to survivors (inset)

Faced with mounting personal injury claims, Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc. is pushing hard for survivors of the Deepwater Horizon disaster to submit to physical and mental exams before their cases can be heard in court. The drilling giant, who owned the rig, has preselected doctors and scheduled appointments for 15 of its former employees who say they sustained psychological and physical injuries from the April 20, 2010 explosion that killed 11 members of the 126-person crew.

The motion takes a brusque tone with the employees' refusal thus far to comply with previous urgings from Transocean.

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Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Oil Company Who Profited In The Deepwater Horizon Spill Tries to Get Out Of Paying Royalties

Zoe Schlanger | July 1, 2011, 6:12PM

A frame grab of the live video stream of operations to stop the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, as seen on May 28, 2010

Remember the BP "top hat"? It was one in a series of desperate attempts by the company to capture the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion last year. The top hat, mocked though it was, managed to capture and remove 679,000 barrels of oil from the crippled well, pumping it to nearby tankers.

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BP

Ken Salazar Denies BP In Talks To Resume Drilling In The Gulf

Jillian Rayfield | April 4, 2011, 11:06AM

An explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar pushed back against reports that BP is in talks to resume drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, almost a year after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blowout killed 11 workers and dumped 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean, calling those reports a "misconception."

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Oil Spill Commission

Commish: Poor Management That Caused BP Oil Spill Is Industry-Wide

Rachel Slajda | January 6, 2011, 9:43AM

Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling platform sinks during Gulf Oil Spill Disaster

The Deepwater Horizon blowout that lead to the worst oil spill in U.S. history was caused by poor management -- poor management that, according to the presidential Oil Spill Commission, is industry-wide.

The commission, which has released some of its findings on the causes of the blowout, says the blowout could have been prevented by better management by BP and its partners, Halliburton and Transocean.

"The blowout was not the product of a series of aberrational decisions made by rogue industry or government officials that could not have been anticipated or expected to occur again," the report reads. "Rather, the root causes are systemic and, absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur."

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BP

Feds Sue Nine Companies Over Gulf Oil Spill, Won't Rule Out Criminal Charges

Ryan J. Reilly | December 15, 2010, 3:52PM

An explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig

Federal officials filed a civil lawsuit on Wednesday against BP and eight other companies that the government says committed environmental violations that caused or contributed to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

The lawsuit seeks for eight companies to be held liable without limitation for both removal costs and damages caused by the oil spill (including natural resource damages) and seeks civil penalties under the Clean Water Act.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Investigator: Halliburton Knew Macondo Cement Was Unstable Before The Spill

Rachel Slajda | October 28, 2010, 3:04PM

An explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig

The lead investigator for the presidential commission on the BP oil spill said today that Halliburton, and possibly BP, appears to have known the cement it was using in the Macondo well was unstable.

In a letter to the commission (PDF), Fred Bartlit wrote that Halliburton had conducted four lab tests of the formula for the cement. Two tests in February showed the slurry would be unstable, and Halliburton apparently gave the results of one of those tests to BP. Another test in April also showed it would be unstable; those results weren't shared with BP, Bartlit wrote. A fourth test, also in April showed the cement would be stable. But, Bartlit writes, "Halliburton may not have had -- and BP did not have -- the results of that test before the evening of April 19," when rig workers began pumping the cement into the Macondo well. The well blew on April 20.

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BP

BP Pays Feinberg Firm $850K A Month To Run Escrow Fund

Rachel Slajda | October 11, 2010, 8:47AM

Kenneth Feinberg and his law firm, which oversees the doling out of compensation to oil spill victims, have been paid $850,000 a month by BP since the compensation fund was created in mid-June.

BP agreed to pay Feinberg Rozen LLP $850,000 a month from mid-June through Oct. 1, according to Bloomberg -- a grand total of $2.5 million.

Feinberg's firm was appointed by the White House to administer a (eventually) $20 billion escrow fund, funded by BP in order to pay claims by fishermen, hotel owners and others hurt by the oil spill.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

BP: Spill Claimants Can't Sue Until They're Denied By The Escrow Fund First

Rachel Slajda | September 14, 2010, 12:55PM

A seafood wholesaler, who has sued BP

People hurt by the Gulf oil spill can't sue BP until after they take their claim to the oil company's $20 billion escrow fund, BP argued in a court memo filed yesterday.

BP's lawyers say the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 requires victims to bring their claims directly to the responsible party first. In this case, BP says, that's the escrow fund funded by BP and administered by Kenneth Feinberg.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

BP Thinks Oil Spill Claims Will Come In Under $20 Billion

Rachel Slajda | September 13, 2010, 9:31AM

Aerial view of oil being burned from the BP Deepwater Horizon platform

BP executives believe that claims related to the Gulf oil spill will total less than $20 billion, the amount the oil company has committed to a fund meant to pay those claims.

Incoming CEO Bob Dudley told analysts he expects to pay less than the $20 billion in claims, but said the total price tag is expected to be around $32 billion.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

BP: Blowout Preventer Failed Partly Because We Didn't Maintain It Correctly

Rachel Slajda | September 8, 2010, 3:16PM

The Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer.

The Deepwater Horizon's blowout preventer, the massive structure meant to stop the well from blowing out and spilling millions of barrels of oil, failed in part because BP and its contractors weren't keeping up with its maintenance, BP's own investigation into the disaster found.

In a report released today, BP's investigators wrote that the blowout preventer had problems when the well blew on April 20 -- problems that could have been detected.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

BP Investigation Released: The Oil Spill Was Everybody's Fault

Rachel Slajda | September 8, 2010, 10:13AM

An explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig

BP today released the report of its own investigation into what caused the Deepwater Horizon to explode and leak millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

We're still digging through the 193-page report, which you can find here, along with the appendices and executive summary. But according to BP's quick-summary press release, the company found that everyone involved had a hand in the disaster.

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BP

BP: If You Limit Our Production, We'll Limit Our Generosity

Rachel Slajda | September 3, 2010, 9:16AM

The Deepwater Horizon rig burning before it sank

Via the New York Times this morning, BP is using its voluntary funding of several programs -- $100 million for unemployed rig workers, $500 million for research, $90 million for Gulf Coast tourism -- as a bargaining chip to try to get lawmakers to back down from punitive legislation.

BP has agreed to voluntarily fund a slew of programs related to Gulf restoration beyond its legal obligations, and state and federal officials are pushing for more. But the company is warning that proposed legislation that would limit its Gulf oil production would also limit its generosity.

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BP

BP Spent $93.4 Million On Advertising Between April And July

Rachel Slajda | September 1, 2010, 1:08PM

A still from a BP ad titled "Making It Right: Cleanup"

BP spent $93.4 million on U.S. advertising efforts between April, when the Deepwater Horizon exploded, and the end of the July.

According to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), who's heading one of the investigations into the oil spill, that's three times the amount BP spent on advertising in the same period last year.

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BP

BP Won't Fully Fund Escrow Account Until End Of 2013

Rachel Slajda | August 9, 2010, 11:49AM

Grand Isle, Lafourche Parish, LA

BP and the Justice Department announced today that BP has made its first contribution into the $20 billion escrow fund which will pay claims related to the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

BP's first payment was $3 billion.

In a press release, BP spelled out its payment plan: $3 billion today, $2 billion at the end of the year, and $1.25 billion per quarter from then on.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Allen: BP Will Swap Blowout Preventer, Give Failed One To DOJ

Rachel Slajda | August 6, 2010, 6:20PM

The Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer.

Adm. Thad Allen, the commander of the Gulf oil spill response, said today that BP will replace the failed blowout preventer on the Macondo well and, most likely, give it to the Department of Justice.

From the AP:

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BP

Feds To Focus On Oil Co's, Gov't Regulators In Criminal Probe

Rachel Slajda | July 28, 2010, 11:29AM

Oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster washes ashore in Louisiana

The federal criminal investigation into the Gulf oil spill will focus on BP, Transocean and Halliburton -- and their connections to federal regulators.

The Washington Post reports today that investigators known as the "BP Squad," including people from the EPA, the Coast Guard, the FBI and other agencies, are assembling in New Orleans. They'll investigate not only the oil companies, but the role the former Minerals Management Service may have played in the disaster.

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BP

BP's Silver Lining: Cutting $10 Billion From Its U.S. Tax Bill

Rachel Slajda | July 28, 2010, 9:25AM

BP executives Lamar McKay, Bob Dudley, and Tony Hayward

BP told investors yesterday that it plans to deduct oil spill costs from its U.S. tax bill, cutting its taxes by $9.9 billion.

As WaPo reports, BP estimated in its second-quarter earnings report that it will spend $32.2 billion on costs related to the oil spill.

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Deepwater Horizon

Contractor: BP Pumped Unusual Chemicals Into Well Before Explosion

Rachel Slajda | July 20, 2010, 10:14AM

An explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig

A contractor working on the Deepwater Horizon when it exploded testified yesterday that the day before the explosion, BP had pumped an unusual chemical mixture into the well -- a mixture that later rained down on the rig like "snot."

Leo Lindner, a drilling fluid specialist for M-I Swaco, told the panel investigating the causes of the explosion that BP decided to mix two chemicals the company had a surplus of -- two chemicals that aren't usually mixed -- and pump them into the well to flush out the drilling mud.

"It's not something we've ever done before," he said.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

BP's Relief Wells Had Blowout Preventer Problems Just Like Deepwater Horizon

Rachel Slajda | July 15, 2010, 5:45PM

The Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer.

Oil has been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for almost 90 days because, in part, the well's blowout preventer didn't work. And as it turns out, the blowout preventers on the relief wells -- the relief wells that are the only way to permanently stop the oil from leaking -- were also found to have "performance problems."

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar noted this week that the relief wells' blowout preventers, or BOPs, had been recently checked out under new testing requirements and found to have problems themselves, which have since been repaired.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Gov't Sends $99.7 Million Bill To BP, Partners

Rachel Slajda | July 13, 2010, 2:49PM

An explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig

The White House announced today that it's sent a fourth bill to BP for costs related to its still-leaking oil well, this one for $99.7 million.

The administration sent the same bill to Anadarko and MOEX, a subsidiary of Japanese company Mitsui, both partners in the well. It also sent the bill to Transocean, which owns the rig.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Anadarko To BP: We're Not Paying That Bill

Rachel Slajda | July 9, 2010, 1:13PM

Anadarko CEO James Hackett and a still from the Gulf

Anadarko, the Texas-based oil company that has a 25 percent stake in the leaking Gulf oil well, has told BP that it won't pay its share of the response costs, totaling more than $272 million.

BP sent Anadarko an invoice last month (seen exclusively at TPMmuckraker) for a quarter of the expenses associated with the well and response efforts, including payments to the government and the drilling of relief wells.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Fisheries Plans To Revisit Opinion On Gulf Oil Spill Effects On Endangered Species

Rachel Slajda | July 8, 2010, 1:04PM

An endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtle is treated after it was found covered in oil.

We told you yesterday about a 2007 document that shows that the National Marine Fisheries Service drastically underestimated the size of a potential oil spill and its effect on endangered species like sea turtles when they signed off on lease sales for drilling sites in the Gulf. A Fisheries official now tells TPMmuckraker that, once the leak is resolved the agency will revisit the opinion.

The agency is charged with enforcing the Endangered Species Act, and part of its mandate is to consult with other federal agencies on whether a proposal -- in this case, opening more of the Gulf to oil and gas drilling -- will jeopardize the existence of protected species.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Enviro Agency Dramatically Underestimated Oil Spill Effects When Signing Off On BP Lease, Docs Show

Rachel Slajda | July 7, 2010, 3:17PM

A Kemp's Ridley sea turtle is recovered for clean up.

A federal agency charged with protecting endangered species signed off in 2007 on a new round of oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico, saying that even if the new drilling led to a major oil spill, only some 60 endangered turtles would be killed, according to the official agency opinion reviewed by TPMmuckraker. But in the two months since the Deepwater Horizon blew, government scientists say more than 400 sea turtles have been found dead so far.

In 2007, the National Marine Fisheries Service, which enforces the Endangered Species Act, was asked to give its "biological opinion" on the impact of new oil drilling leases -- including the lease of the now-leaking Macondo prospect -- on endangered species, including turtles, sperm whales and sturgeon. Under the law, the Minerals Management Service, which leases the underwater wells, had to get NMFS's sign-off that the drilling wouldn't jeopardize the populations of endangered species.

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Anadarko Petroleum

Exclusive: BP Bills Anadarko $272 Million In Gulf Spill Response

Rachel Slajda | June 30, 2010, 2:37PM

An explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig

Texas-based Anadarko owes BP more than $272 million for its share of cleanup and response costs in the Gulf, according to a bill that was sent by BP and obtained by TPMMuckraker.

Anadarko owns a 25 percent stake in BP's Deepwater Horizon, and BP wants Anadarko to pay for 25 percent of costs. Those costs include money BP has spent to drill the relief wells and stage other spill response efforts, plus reimbursements to the federal government, damages to equipment and claims paid to those hurt by the leak.

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Anadarko Petroleum

Anadarko Had Say In Deepwater Horizon Well Design

Rachel Slajda | June 30, 2010, 12:01PM

Anadarko CEO James Hackett and a still from the Gulf

The Financial Times reported this morning that Anadarko, the U.S.-based company that owns 25 percent of the Deepwater Horizon's lease, had a say in the rig's design and got regular updates on its operation from BP.

The news could complicate Anadarko's attempt to prove that BP caused the blowout by acting negligently. If Anadarko can prove gross negligence or willfull misconduct, it can get off the hook for its share of cleanup and response costs.

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BP

How BP's Bob Dudley Got Kicked Out Of Russia

Rachel Slajda | June 25, 2010, 3:08PM

Bob Dudley, right, with Tony Hayward

If you've heard anything about Bob Dudley, the BP managing director who this week took over supervising the Gulf response from CEO Tony Hayward, you've probably heard that he was expelled from Russia in 2008.

So what happened?

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BP

NYT: BP Moving Ahead With Offshore Alaska Rig Despite Moratorium

Rachel Slajda | June 24, 2010, 11:34AM

The Endicott oil production island in Alaska

The New York Times reports today that BP is moving ahead with a project that would drill a two-mile-deep well off the coast of Alaska. How is BP getting around the moratorium on new offshore drilling? It's building its rig on an island -- a man-made island built by BP -- and declaring it "onshore."

The moratorium was instituted in response to the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, a leak BP is legally responsible for. And yet, BP is now the only company allowed to drill a new well in the Arctic.

The moratorium was blocked by a judge, but the Obama administration has challenged the block. Many oil companies are in a holding pattern until the legal challenges are over.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Meet Anadarko, The Oil Company Struggling To Get Off The Hook For The Gulf Spill

Rachel Slajda | June 24, 2010, 10:53AM

Anadarko CEO James Hackett and a still from the Gulf

You could never imagine BP escaping public notice in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. And yet one of its partners, Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum has somehow -- despite owning a 25 percent stake in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig -- almost managed to fly under the public's radar.

That is, it did until last Friday, when Anadarko's CEO released a scathing statement declaring BP grossly negligent in the rig's explosion. But why risk the PR exposure? Possibly, Anadarko is looking to limit their legal exposure.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

BP Flacks' Guide: Do Not Promise 'Property, Ecology, Or Anything Else Will Be Restored To Normal'

Justin Elliott | June 8, 2010, 5:50PM

Here's a sobering tidbit from BP's guide for company spokespeople dealing with oil spills: "No statement shall be made containing ... Promises that property, ecology, or anything else will be restored to normal."

The passage comes from BP's June 2009 Gulf of Mexico Regional Oil Spill Response Plan, made available by the Minerals Management Service. Check out the monster document right here (the flacks' guide is in Appendix X, page 528).

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

BP Hires Former Dick Cheney Spox To Run PR Ops

Rachel Slajda | June 1, 2010, 11:03AM

Former Vice President Dick Cheney

BP, struggling to maintain its image while taking responsibility for the worst oil disaster in U.S. history, has hired someone new to head its American public relations operation: Anne Womack-Kolton, the former campaign press secretary for Vice President Dick Cheney.

Womack-Kolton ran Cheney's press shop during the 2004 campaign, and worked as an assistant press secretary in 2000. She was also an assistant in the White House press office.

She begins today, the BP press office tells TPM.

In the private sector, she's worked for the Brunswick Group and APCO Worldwide.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

In 1979, Less Complicated Oil Leak Took 10 Months To Stop

Rachel Slajda | May 31, 2010, 3:40PM

An aerial view from the Ixtoc oil spill in 1979

The BP oil spill has been called an "unprecedented disaster" by both the president and BP's top executive. But the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe has echoes of a 1979 spill, when a rig in the southern Gulf exploded after the blowout preventer failed.

Thirty-one years later, we haven't come that far technologically with how we deal with underwater oil drilling spills. The Mexican company running the Ixtoc I rig attempted a slew of now-familiar remedies --- they pumped mud into the well, capped it with a metal "sombrero," shot lead balls into the well and drilled relief wells -- but it took 10 months to stop the leak even though the drilling was taking place just 160 feet below the surface.

The Deepwater Horizon, which blew on April 20, was drilling 5,000 feet underwater.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

BP To Gov't Last Year: We Can Handle A 300,000 Barrels-Per-Day Spill Just Fine

Justin Elliott | May 31, 2010, 1:03PM

A worker cleans up a contaminated beach in Port Fourchon, Louisiana on May 24, 2010

Of all the bad predictions and downright misinformation we've seen surrounding the Gulf oil spill, this one ranks pretty high: BP actually told the government last year that it was prepared to respond to a blowout flowing at 300,000 barrels per day -- as much as 25 times the rate of the current spill.

That assertion came in an Initial Exploration Plan for the well that ultimately blew out, filed with the Minerals Management Service in 2009. BP says in the document that it "has the capability to respond, to the maximum extent practicable, to a worst-case discharge, or a substantial threat of such a discharge, resulting from the activities proposed in our Exploration Plan."

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Oil spill

Mission Impossible: Obama Taps Crack Team Of Scientists To Do The Job BP Can't

Zachary Roth | May 14, 2010, 5:36PM

Scientists tapped by the Obama administration to help fix the Gulf Coast oil spill. From left to right: Richard Garwin, Tom Hunter, Alexander Slocum, Jonathan Katz and George Cooper

President Obama's new plan to fix the Gulf oil spill is so crazy it just might work...

As BP's high-priced industry experts flail, the president last week turned to a rag-tag band of big-think scientific renegades, and sent them on a mission to somehow MacGyver a way to stop up the leak -- before it's too late.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

BP CEO: Gulf Coast Oil Spill Is Relatively 'Tiny' Compared To 'Very Big Ocean'

Ben Frumin | May 14, 2010, 11:36AM

BP Group CEO Tony Hayward

BP CEO Tony Hayward isn't just off message -- he's way off message.

In an interview with the Guardian, Hayward declared that the giant oil spill in the gulf (still gushing thousands of gallons of oil a day into the sea) and the hundreds of thousands of gallons of "dispersant" BP has pumped into the water to combat the slick are "tiny" compared to the "very big ocean."

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Lisa Murkowski

Murkowski, Oil Lobby Block Effort To Make Industry Fully Pay For Spills

Zachary Roth | May 14, 2010, 10:01AM

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

Even in a Washington as dominated by corporate money as today's, it's not often that you see a lawmaker side with financial backers over the public interest as brazenly as Alaska's senior senator did yesterday.

In the wake of last month's catastrophic Gulf Coast oil spill, Sen. Lisa Murkowski blocked a bill that would have raised the maximum liability for oil companies after a spill from a paltry $75 million to $10 billion. The Republican lawmaker said the bill, introduced by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), would have unfairly hurt smaller oil companies by raising the costs of oil production. The legislation is "not where we need to be right now" she said.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Scientists: Rate Of Oil Spill May Be Far Worse Than Thought

Justin Elliott | May 14, 2010, 9:09AM

A screenshot from BP's oil spill video

For the second time in the short life of the Gulf oil spill, we're learning that the scope of the disaster may be drastically worse than previous estimates by the government.

Following the release of underwater video by BP, NPR asked scientists to analyze the footage to try to come up with an estimate of the flow rate:

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Report: Criminal Charges Likely Over Oil Spill

Justin Elliott | May 13, 2010, 8:59AM

Oil from the Deepwater Horizon rig

Environmental law experts tell McClatchy it's likely the Justice Department will ultimately bring criminal charges against the companies involved in the oil spill, potentially under the Clean Water and Air Acts.

McClatchy reports:

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Transocean To Workers After Rig Explosion: Sign The Waiver Here, Please! (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | May 12, 2010, 2:34PM

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig sinks; the Transocean form presented to survivors (inset)

When rescued workers were brought ashore following the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig last month, officials with drilling giant Transocean presented them with forms stating they had not been injured and that they had no first-hand knowledge of what happened. Lawyers for the workers are now crying foul about what they say is an all too common industry practice to impeach workers' credibility in future legal proceedings.

Some workers are saying they were coerced into signing the form, a charge Transocean denies. But the episode is reminiscent of reports that BP presented Alabama fishermen with contracts that included a no-sue clause in exchange for $5,000.

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