Deepwater Horizon

DOJ: Shipbuilder Lied to Coast Guard to Win Contracts During Gulf Spill Reponse

Zoe Schlanger | August 17, 2011, 3:58PM

BP's Deepwater Horizon site in the Gulf of Mexico

The United States filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Louisiana ship building company they say lied to them to gain a major contract with the U.S. Coast Guard during the Deepwater Horizon disaster response.

The company, Bollinger Shipyards Inc., won a contract to extend the hulls of eight Coast Guard ships after making "misrepresentations about the hull strength of the converted vessels," according to the DOJ statement. The first converted ship suffered hull failure immediately after the conversion, and efforts to repair the fleet failed. All eight were rendered unseaworthy, and now the government wants Bollinger to pay for the lost ships.

"Companies which make false statements to win Coast Guard contracts do a disservice to the men and women securing our borders," Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, said in a statement. "We will take action against those who undermine the integrity of the public contracting process by providing substandard equipment to our armed services personnel."

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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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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: 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 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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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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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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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

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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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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Minerals Management Service

FLASHBACK: The Sex And Oil Scandals Of The Minerals Management Service

Justin Elliott | May 6, 2010, 2:12PM

An oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon accident, and the seal of the Minerals Management Service (inset)

Of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) said it best on Tuesday: "In the Bush administration, these were the guys that were having sex orgies and pot parties and weren't showing up for work."

As the government agency that regulates offshore drilling, MMS is already under scrutiny for its handling of the rig that exploded and caused the oil spill. It's not yet clear whether there were missteps by the agency, though the Washington Post reported earlier this week that MMS' environmental impact assessments of the Deepwater Horizon rig had not considered the possibility of a major spill.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Halliburton Role On Oil Rig Puts Firm Under Scrutiny Once Again

Justin Elliott | May 5, 2010, 11:16AM

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig on fire before it sank, and a sign at a Halliburton plant (inset)

Halliburton is back.

The Houston energy services giant once led by Dick Cheney became the corporate bête noire of the Bush years as one of the biggest (and most troubled) Iraq War contractors. But the company had largely faded from public view since President Obama entered office -- until now.

As the provider of crucial cementing services on the oil rig that exploded and set off the massive spill in the Gulf, Halliburton finds itself under scrutiny once again.

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BP

Paying For The Oil Spill: A Guide To Who's On The Hook

Justin Elliott | May 4, 2010, 2:15PM

The Deepwater Horizon rig burning before it sank

There are two broad categories of costs associated with the catastrophic BP Gulf oil spill: one is cleanup; the other is damage caused by the oil -- to shoreline property, local tax revenues, the fishing and tourism industries, and other businesses and individuals.

Here's a guide to who's on the hook for which costs.

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BP

The Gulf Coast BP Oil Spill: A Timeline

Justin Elliott | April 30, 2010, 2:28PM

An explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig

Ten days ago, after an explosion occurred on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig off the Gulf Coast, the initial word from the Coast Guard was that there was no oil spill. That soon changed as the government announced that 1,000 barrels of thick oil per day were spilling into the ocean.

Then, in a dramatic shift on Wednesday evening, the government changed its 1,000 barrels estimate to 5,000 barrels per day. BP initially rejected the new estimate about the spill, which experts now believe could be worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.

We're sure to learn more in the coming months and years about what the government and BP knew about the scope of the disaster, when they knew it, and whether they responded appropriately. For now, TPMmuckraker decided to take a look at the course of events, and the shifting public statements of company and government officials on the spill.

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