Oil spill

About | Subscribe | RSS

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.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)
Topics: BP, Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Gulf Coast Oil Spill, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oil spill

China

US Company Spills Oil In Chinese Waters, State Disclosure Scrutinized

Zoe Schlanger | August 11, 2011, 2:00PM

Cleanup efforts at the leaking oilfield in Bohai Sea, China

More than two months since the first leak was discovered, U.S. oil giant ConocoPhillips announced Tuesday it was resuming its efforts to clean up the series of oil slicks spilled into China's Bohai Sea.

The spill, which contaminated about 460 square miles, came from two leaks on a well field run by Conoco in partnership with a state-run corporation. The problem was detected on June 4 but went officially unreported for a month, after a blog leaked the news on June 21, according to the Guardian. The Chinese government initially downplayed the extent of the accident, but confirmed the spill on July 6, announcing that the water quality in the affected area had fallen to the lowest of its four categories.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)
Topics: China, ConocoPhillips, Oil spill, Shell

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.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)
Topics: BP, Deepwater Horizon, Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Oil Spill Commission, Oil spill, TransOcean LTD.

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.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)
Topics: BP, Department of Justice, EPA, Gulf Coast Oil Spill, Oil, Oil Business, Oil spill

Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Head Of Oil Spill Commission: No Evidence BP Cut Corners to Save Cash

Rachel Slajda | November 8, 2010, 4:18PM

Chief Counsel Fred Bartlit during a hearing on BP's Macondo well disaster.

Fred Bartlit, the lead investigator for the Oil Spill Commission, today said he's seen no evidence that the BP oil disaster was caused by sacrificing safety for cost.

"To date we have not seen a single instance where a human being made a conscious decision to favor dollars over safety," Bartlit said at a hearing today. "A lot has been said about this, but we have not found a situation where we can say a man had a choice between safety and dollars and put his money on dollars. If anybody has anything else to say about that, we're happy to hear it."

PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)
Topics: Gulf Coast Oil Spill, 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.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)
Topics: Alexander Slocum, BP, Barack Obama, George Cooper, Jonathan Katz, Oil spill, Richard Garwin, Steven Chu, Tom Hunter

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.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)
Topics: BP, Lisa Murkowski, Lobbyists, Oil, Oil spill, Robert Menendez

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.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)
Topics: BP, Deepwater Horizon, Forms Signed By Rig Workers, Gulf Coast Oil Spill, Oil, Oil spill, Tony Buzbee, TransOcean LTD.

Gulf Coast Oil Spill

TPM's Tour Of The Oil Spill Flack Universe -- Who's On Damage Control?

Christina Bellantoni | May 5, 2010, 12:25PM

Clockwise, from top left: Workers organize for oil cleanup efforts in Venice, LA, the U.S. Capitol, the Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling platform sinks, and API President and CEO Jack Gerard

As the oil industry went into full damage control mode following the catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico, their corporate public relations went into overdrive too, with firms across Washington jumping in to help British Petroleum and BP firing up its Facebook page and Twitter feed. The universe of flacks Americans might be seeing on television and quoted in news stories has widened, with BP executives making the rounds, hosting journalists for explainer sessions and corporate PR folks helping craft an image of a company doing everything it can to help.

The industry already had an army of lobbyists and PR hands deployed in Washington to influence the negotiations over climate change legislation (which may be in dire straits thanks to the spill), and BP brought in the international consulting firm the Brunswick Group.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)
Topics: BP, British Petroleum, Gulf Coast Oil Spill, Oil, Oil Business, Oil spill

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.