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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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Enviro Agency Just Guessed At Size Of Major Spill When OK'ing Gulf Wells

Rachel Slajda | July 26, 2010, 5:19PM

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

Earlier this month, we told you how the National Marine Fisheries Service, charged with protecting endangered marine life in the Gulf, drastically underestimated the size and effects of an oil spill in the Gulf. Its opinion allowed the government to sell leases to oil reserves in the Gulf -- including the now-leaking Macondo well -- to various oil companies.

Fisheries estimated that a "major" oil spill would be about half the size of the Ixtoc I disaster, which dumped an estimated 3.5 million barrels in the Gulf of Mexico in 1979.

TPMmuckraker has now found proof that Fisheries did little more than throw up their hands and guess when coming up with that estimation. But the former Minerals Management Service did much worse, estimating that such a spill would be about 15,000 barrels -- less than one percent of Fisheries' estimate.

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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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