HELLO…..CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME OUT THERE!

HELLO…..CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME OUT THERE!

(Al Jazeera America, Reuters, National Wildlife Federation, Rick Jervis)

(noLa.com, United States National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration)

(Agence France-Presse, Naoki Swartz, Chris Kirkham, Jessica Leader, Julie M. Rodriguez)

(John Charles Milne, Department of Commerce, Land Management, Jo Tuckman, Frazer Chronicle)

 

And so it begins, after three years, and billions of dollars in reparations to countless recipients, British Petroleum has come to the realization that money, in fact can’t buy happiness. Major industries, manufacturers, and those Captains of Industry should learn a lesson from the disaster that was the Deep Horizon oil spill.

 

I will say one thing about the United States…..and her drive to be the leader in all that she surveys, the Gulf of Mexico spill, or the (Deep Horizon oil spill, the BP oil spill, or the BP oil disaster, or Macondo blowout,) began in April 2010 at the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, and is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, estimated to be between 8% and 31% larger in volume than the Ixtoc 1 oil spill.

 

The resulting oil-spill, (over 87 days,) spewed an estimated 4.9 million barrels, (210 million U.S. gallons of crude into the sea.) There was a massive response as attempts to protect beaches, wetlands and estuaries from the spreading oil utilizing skimmer ships, floating booms, controlled burns and 1.84 million gallons of Corexit oil dispersant.

 

The above recites the problem that initially plagued British Petroleum, and the United States Government and the fisheries on the coastline of Louisiana. In June of this year, British Petroleum declared that it had wrapped up (active) cleanup operations in three states, but continued to patrol a stretch of beach of Louisiana.

 

Despite the massive initial response and cleanup, the effort did not collect huge amounts of the oil, which kept washing back upon shore when storms churned up the ocean floor. BP wrapped up cleanup efforts in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama as well as Florida. I’m not sure what that means, I can remember a time when I said that a (job was done,) I didn’t monitor anything, wasn’t aware of long term problems or damage…..is this what British Petroleum  means, or will they throw hundred dollar bills at protesters like a hospital throws band-aids to patients who have a cut on their finger?

 

BP has been around for a while, since 1909, like the chicken and the egg; BP was founded after the automobile…..1909 to be exact. The company has gone through growing pains, just like any other company, Anglo-Persian Oil Company, 1909, Angelo-Iranian Oil, 1935, British Petroleum, 1954, BP Amoco, 1998, and BP in 2001.

 

The company today is a multinational oil and gas company, and is the 5^th largest energy company by market capitalization, and also the 5^th largest company in the world measured by 2012 revenues, and the 6^th largest oil and gas company measured by 2012 production. The company operates in more than 80 countries, and employs in excess of 85,000 people.

 

BP produces petroleum, natural gas, motor, aviation fuels and petrochemicals, derived from more than 3.3 million barrels of crude a year. In addition the company has a $19,733 billion dollars operating budget with revenue amounting to $388.285 Billion, and a profit of $11.816 Billion.

 

Is BP too big to fail, well you be the judge, it is estimated that in the United States alone, the former British Petroleum Company operates 300,000 gasoline stations just in the United States…..and the number is growing by the day.

 

If BP were to go out of business tomorrow…..for any reason, the impact would be felt around the world, and more than two million people would suddenly be left without a job. Also if BP ceased operations tomorrow, a goodly chuck of reparation activity would also come to an end, the repairs to the environment, to industrial sites, and to those people who are counting on their financial future because of the financial settlements paid would probably end.

 

DEEPWATER HORIZON, AND IXTOC I OIL SPILL

The IXTOC I oil spill occurred on June 3, 1979 in the Campeche Bay of the Gulf of Mexico which was being drilled by the semi-submersible drilling red Sedco, about 60 miles northwest of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche in waters that were 160’ deep. A blowout resulted in the largest oil spill…..at that time, in the world.

 

Mexico’s government-owned oil company, Pemex, (Petr’oleos Mexicanos) was drilling with the also government owned Sedco 135-F submersible, when an equalize pressure operation failed at the 11,800’ depth, blowing out the well causing more than 3 million barrels of crude, (130,000,000 gallons) to contaminate 1,100 square miles and 162 miles of shoreline.

 

The aftermath was that Premex spent $100 million dollars to clean the spill, but avoided most compensation claims by asserting sovereign immunity as a state-run company. The U.S. government had two months to prepare booms to protect major inlets and the Texas shoreline.

 

Where did all that crude go.....well, a great question, some went to the Mexican beaches, about 36,000 metric ton, and approximately 4000 metric ton landed on Texas beaches. And the rest of the oil, about 120,000 metric ton, or about 25% of the spill sank to the bottom of the Gulf, where it remains to this day.

 

Unlike the Deepwater Horizon accident, nobody lost their life in the IXTOC 1 disaster, but the Deepwater Horizon proved to be a real gusher, as estimates run from 1000 barrels to more than 62,000 barrels per day. All told the spill affected 68,000 square miles and more than 500 miles of coast-line have been defiled by an industrial accident the likes of which human-kind has never experienced.

 

DEEPWATER HORIZON STILL LEAKING

Researchers think not, they figure that although the oil slicks that appear periodically were produced by the Deepwater workings, but not from the blowout, but from tanks, and the Gulf floor. While the news of where the oil slicks are coming is depressing, the damage has already been done to the marine life. The Corexit dispersant and the four million barrels of oil released into the environment have already worked their devilish damage.

 

However by far the most stupid thing that BP has been doing here in the United States and in the Gulf of Mexico is to dispute facts, figures, and the long boney finger of justice. What  BP did in the Gulf of Mexico was criminal, should the company be broken for what they and other venders did…..well I don’t know, I guess others will have to judge that.

 

What happened Monday, September 30, 2013 will go a long way in determining how our judicial system is going to work against the big bad corporate world…..of the world. The damage that has been done just might be irreversible…..and that is scary…..and that’s coming from a guy who doesn’t really give a crap about the future generations of the world.

 

But gee, come on…..which kind of dumb do we really have to be as a people not to understand that tapping into a huge underground reservoir of…..anything might kick off a chain-reaction, putting us all in danger…..me included…..and I don’t like that.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!