BP will link bonus payments to safety

It's not a bad start, but will it continue?

BP's new boss Bob Dudley has told the company's 80,000 employees that safety will be the sole measure for bonus payments in the fourth quarter.

Mr Dudley said in an email that payments would be linked to "reducing operational risks" and "excellent safety and compliance standards".

Existing bonus arrangements would be honoured for the first nine months of the year, he added.

Also of note is that BP has re-agreed to waive the $75 million liability cap. Many were surprised when BP lawyers suggested they may renege on their previous deal of accepting all costs for the Gulf of Mexico disaster. Read More......

Is BP backing out of their previous deal to 'pay whatever is necessary?'

This does not sound encouraging. At all.

But yesterday in federal court, an attorney for the oil giant sent shockwaves throughout the Gulf region by suggesting that BP may seek shelter under the $75 million liability cap polluters can invoke under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

U.S. District Judge Carl J. Barbier, who's presiding over the more than 300 consolidated lawsuits against the company, was taken aback when BP attorney Don Haycraft floated the idea of the liability cap. Barbier replied simply that "BP said it would pay whatever [is] necessary." Steven Herman, a plaintiffs attorney in the case, also registered surprise. "We're shocked over here to hear the defendants now bring up this $75 million cap," he said. "We were under the impression it was waived."

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OPEC seeking $100/barrel due to weak dollar

This is about the last thing anyone needs in the US. The only possible bright side is that maybe it will encourage politicians to make some attempt to move beyond a petroleum based economy. Bloomberg:

The 13 percent decline in the Dollar Index since June has led some OPEC members to call for oil to rise to $100 a barrel.

The U.S. currency’s weakness means the “real price” of oil is about $20 less than current levels, Venezuelan Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said after yesterday’s meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna. The group, which accounts for 40 percent of global crude output, left targets unchanged and called for greater adherence to quotas, which are being exceeded by a supertanker load a day.

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And yet another deadly attack on a NATO fuel convoy

This is getting ridiculous.

Gunmen in south-western Pakistan have attacked and set fire to nearly 30 tankers carrying fuel to Nato troops in Afghanistan, officials say.

The gunmen torched the convoy parked near a roadside restaurant near the town of Sibi in a pre-dawn raid.

The Pakistani Taliban have carried out a series of similar attacks since last week, when the authorities closed the main border crossing to Afghanistan.

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Obama administration strongly criticized in BP oil spill report

Rightly so. It took the White House a month to get on board and even when they finally came around, they deferred to BP much too often. Instead of supporting BP the administration should have been supportive of the US public and environment. Even now it's laughable to think back to the way the Republicans fumed about the administration mistreating BP. Why should either political party put the best interest of a corporation over the best interest of the country? This story is a bit too common from both parties, unfortunately.

One staff report said that the Office of Management and Budget denied a request by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to release "worst-case discharge figures" in late April or early May, weeks before the dire dimensions of the spill were publicly known.

"Putting aside the question of whether the public had a right to know the worst-case discharge figures, disclosure of those estimates, and explanation of their role in guiding the government effort, may have improved public confidence in the response," said one of the working papers by the staff of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.

"Moreover," the paper added, "the national response may have benefited early on from a greater sense of urgency, which public discussion of worst-case discharge figures may have generated."

How did that delay of information work out? The funny thing is that much like Obama's gentle handling of Wall Street, these people still complain and attack him. When will this administration ever learn? I wish it wasn't so, but there's little expectation that they will learn. Read More......

Oil continues to be the weak link in Afghanistan

The attacks against US forces have been deadly and costly in terms of supplies. While it's good that the US military is forcing the issue of alternative energy supplies, it still leaves us with the question of why we're still in Afghanistan. BBC:

Gunmen in Pakistan have torched at least 10 oil tankers carrying fuel for Nato vehicles in Afghanistan in the latest such attack in recent days.

A driver died in the ambush near the south-western city of Quetta.

The number of attacks on tankers has soared in the last week since one of the main routes into Afghanistan was shut by the Pakistani authorities.

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Gibbs: Sen. Landrieu's taking hostage of OMB nominee 'sad' and 'outrageous'

From Sam Stein at Huff Post:

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs took aim at Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La) on Thursday, calling her decision to block the nomination of the next OMB chairman over concern about a moratorium on deepwater drilling both "sad" and "outrageous."

Addressing what appears to be a political stalemate over the nomination of Jacob Lew to the post, Gibbs offered unusually blunt criticism of a congressional Democrat.

"The budget-planning process is underway," Gibbs said. "And should be underway with a director with the type of bipartisan support that Jack has gotten through two committees. I think it is a sad day when somebody is held up with such bipartisan support with the type of experience that's necessary in an environment where we have to improve our fiscal picture that that person is held up for something that is completely unrelated to them. I think it is sad and I think it's outrageous."

"The president -- well, Secretary Salazar met with Senator Landrieu to update her on where we are with the situation," Gibbs added. "They have met in the last couple of days to get an update on where we are. We are not bargaining the safety of oil drilling away for an appointment that shouldn't be the cause of the type of gridlock that we are used to seeing in Washington. And I would think people who are concerned about our fiscal picture, who are concerned about where we are heading in the deficit, at the time of crisis would not do the type of things that Senator Landrieu is doing."

This is great that Gibbs is standing up to Landrieu. But Landrieu learned her lesson long ago - if you stand up to Obama, he'll eventually cave. Hopefully the White House won't cave this time. At some point, they need to break the cycle, or this legislative hostage-taking will never end. Read More......

Republicans block Gulf Oil Spill Commission from having subpeona power

Let me guess. The Republicans want to apologize again to BP. What's so wrong about asking Big Oil to provide honest testimony? Read More......

Scientists continue to search for BP oil in Gulf, delayed by lack of funds

It should be a considerable concern in Washington that funds for research have been delayed so long. Collecting data now is important for the long term research into this environmental disaster. Then again, maybe too many in Washington would prefer inaction due to the potential implications related to Big Oil.

We've heard a lot of stories so far about how the oil has magically disappeared, perhaps thanks to oil eating bacteria but until there is much more serious and coordinated research, it's all a guess. We really need to get the funding problem sorted now.

On his return voyage he is encountering a void. "If that oil and gas had been consumed by bacteria you would expect to see more oxygen depletion than what we have seen," he said.

"Was it just a fluke that we found it, or is there an oil carpet on the ground?"

So where is the oil? It's been two months since any new crude from BP's well entered the Gulf. Independent estimates suggest 4.4m barrels of oil spewed out into the Gulf of Mexico, but there is no scientific agreement on its fate. "You could say it's a mystery," said Amon.

Did the oil sink to the bottom? A University of Georgia research expedition earlier this month discovered a thick coating of oil on the sea floor, 16 nautical miles from the BP well-head.

Is it floating in the depths? One team of researchers reported finding a deep sea plume of oil and natural gas the size of Manhattan, that was slow to degrade. A second study of the plume found the oil and gas were quickly being gobbled up by microbes.

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Gulf oil leak payments increased substantially after BP moved out of control

Golly, who ever could have imagined? So many of us always thought BP was like a good friend who was always there to help. Even their Beyond Petroleum adverts convinced us that they were there as a force for good, helping the energy industry move forward with a green vision of the world. My whole world has been turned upside down by this news.

BP said payouts to people affected by its Gulf of Mexico oil spill had dramatically increased since it surrendered authority for dispensing funds to an independent administrator.

BP said the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), the $20 billion fund it set up to compensate fishermen, hoteliers and retailers whose business was hit by the spill, had paid out 19,000 claims totaling over $240 million.

The total cost of the spill response has hit $9.5 billion, Europe's second-largest oil company by market value said in a statement late on Sunday.

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Media continues to be blocked on oil stained beaches

Sounds like BP has everything under control. Read More......

BP Gulf oil well finally appears to be closed

There's obviously a lot of work left to clean up the leaked oil but at least the well is finally shut down.

Engineers were conducting tests Saturday on the cement injected into the bottom of BP's blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico, and an official declaration that the well has been permanently plugged was expected sometime Sunday, officials said.

The pronouncement will be an anticlimactic end to a catastophe that began five months ago - after all, the gusher was capped in July.

This, though, is an important milestone for the still-weary residents of the Gulf Coast: an assurance that not so much as a trickle of oil will ever again seep from the well. The disaster began April 20, when an explosion killed 11 workers, sank a drilling rig and led to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

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Gulf bacteria digests gas, not oil

Imagine that. The initial story churned out of a BP-funded lab about oil-eating bacteria may have been misleading. Who could imagine BP might spin the truth?

Bacteria that attacked the plumes of oil and gas resulting from the Deepwater Horizon gusher in the Gulf of Mexico mainly digested natural gas spewing from the wellhead — propane, ethane and butane — rather than oil, according to a study published in the journal Science.

The paper doesn't rule out the possibility that bacteria also are consuming oil from the spill, the authors said. Instead, it suggests that natural gas primed the growth of bacteria that may have gone on to digest "more complex hydrocarbons" — oil — as the spill aged and propane and ethane were depleted.

Still, lead author David L. Valentine, a professor of microbial geochemistry at UC Santa Barbara, said the findings temper hopes that microorganisms detected by scientists in the gulf have eaten up most of the oil there, as other scientists had recently suggested.

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US calls for idle oil rig wells to be plugged

It's about time someone starts giving orders to the oil industry instead of letting them call the shots. Besides the idle oil wells, it may be worth doing a sample study of 27,000 old wells that are closed. Perhaps the oil industry invested time and money to permanently close them with care, but taking their word for it means little.

Now is the time to let Big Oil live by the same rules as everyone else. There's a reason why their profits are the highest ever on the planet.

The US is set to require oil companies to plug 3,500 non-producing Gulf of Mexico oil wells in an effort to prevent future leaks, officials say.

The interior department will also require companies to dismantle 650 unused oil and gas platforms.

Some installations have sat idle for decades without inspection for leaks.

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Independent scientific research on Gulf oil leak is lacking money

This is a very bad sign. If the Obama administration is serious about suing BP and other oil companies involved in the leak, this problem has to be resolved quickly. BP is indeed paying some scientists to do research into the problem but somehow the administration allowed BP to include language that may not allow that information to be made public. (Whoever allowed that should be sent packing.) How is it possible to make a case when there's little scientific research to support your case? NY Times:

The only federal agency to distribute any significant grant money for oil spill research, the National Science Foundation, is out of money until the next fiscal year begins Oct. 1. The Environmental Protection Agency, which has only $2 million to give out, is still gearing up its program. A $500 million initiative for independent research promised by BP, which was to be awarded by an international panel of scientists, has become mired in a political fight over control. State agencies, too, are stymied.

“We have met with every possible person we can regarding this issue, built the templates, sent in the requests, and we are waiting to see,” said Hank M. Bounds, the Mississippi commissioner of higher education, speaking of the needs of Ms. Perry and other scientists.

There is plenty of science being done on the spill, but most of it is in the service of either the response effort, the federal Natural Damage Resource Assessment that will determine BP’s liability, or BP’s legal defense. Scientists who participate in those efforts may face restrictions on how they can use or publish their data. More important, they do not have a free hand in determining the scope of their studies.

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Scientists discover thick layer of oil on floor of Gulf

It sounds like quite a lot of the leaked oil has found its way to the bottom and is not going anywhere. Not surprisingly, dead fish and shrimp are being found under the layer of oil. NPR:

The Research Vessel Oceanus sailed on Aug. 21 on a mission to figure out what happened to the more than 4 million barrels of oil that gushed into the water. Onboard, Samantha Joye, a professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, says she suddenly has a pretty good idea about where a lot of it ended up. It's showing up in samples of the seafloor, between the well site and the coast.

"I've collected literally hundreds of sediment cores from the Gulf of Mexico, including around this area. And I've never seen anything like this," she said in an interview via satellite phone from the boat.

Joye describes seeing layers of oily material — in some places more than 2 inches thick — covering the bottom of the seafloor.

"It's very fluffy and porous. And there are little tar balls in there you can see that look like microscopic cauliflower heads," she says.

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BP gladly accepts blame for half of one of eight problems that led to disaster

What else should we expect from BP? Why is the US government still doing business with this revolting company? Until they sign an unconditional document accepting all costs for their mistake, it's unclear why they are still allowed to make a profit from the US.

BP on Wednesday released an internal report blaming itself but also partners for the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and oil spill, but its key partner, Transocean Ltd., quickly lashed out, calling it a "self-serving report" that minimized what it said was critical: BP's "fatally flawed" well design.

"This is a self-serving report that attempts to conceal the critical factor that set the stage for the Macondo incident: BP's fatally flawed well design," Transocean said in a statement released shortly after BP released its internal review. "In both its design and construction, BP made a series of cost-saving decisions that increased risk — in some cases, severely."

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Mariner Energy had 13 incidents on oil rigs since 2006

But remember, offshore drilling is safe. We know this because Mariner says so during their protests.

Mariner Energy has been involved in a string of at least 13 offshore accidents since 2006 in Gulf of Mexico waters -- including a blowout and four fires -- that were investigated by the Minerals Management Service (now the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement). Possible violations were reported in at least seven of the reported accidents and Mariner has paid at least two separate civil penalties related to accidents, records show.

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How'd that rally for more drilling work out for Mariner Energy?

Mariner Energy would be the owners of the rig that caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday. The day before Mariner had been participating in a public rally demanding more drilling. Why? Because it's so doggone safe, of course! There's nothing quite like corporate organized public fury.

The fire is a setback for the oil industry, which has been arguing that drilling in the Gulf is safe and that the BP explosion was a rare event. It came only 24 hours after companies including Mariner had staged a rally in Houston against a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf. About 5,000 employees had been bussed in for the rally.

Barbara Dianne Hagood, a spokesman for Mariner Energy, told the Financial Times on Wednesday: "I have been in the oil and gas industry for 40 years, and this [the Obama] administration is trying to break us. The moratorium they imposed is going to be a financial disaster for the Gulf coast, Gulf coast employees and Gulf coast residents."

The good news for the environment is that is sounds like there will not be an oil leak since they were not yet drilling. Read More......

BP holds US to ransom - demands new drilling permits or not payouts

Predictable. As I have said countless times, when the tables are turned this is how the corporate world reacts. Whether it's Big Oil or Wall Street, they will gladly accept a handout when it's there (massive tax breaks, bailouts, etc) without strings. Naturally when someone else is asking them for something in return it's always with strings attached. In the case of BP, they are reneging on a previous deal to payout those financially impacted by the oil spill. No strings were ever attached. The US government could have radically changed the terms of the deal by making links to government contracts since BP relies so heavily on business with the US government, but they didn't.

BP is as oily as the slick they left in the Gulf of Mexico and can never be trusted. Maybe it's time for Washington to play hardball with this company instead of once again playing nice. BP has yet to show they can behave responsibly so why tolerate this behavior?

Is BP saying that they have not yet added the $20 billion into the escrow account? If that's the case Washington should start rounding up single contract with BP and start blocking all payments until this issue is resolved. Freeze their accounts as we've done for states such as Iran until the issue is settled. The US holds an enormous upper hand here so to let BP make an attempt at dictating payment terms should not be allowed. No apologies are required for asking BP to hold up their end of the bargain. None at all.

BP is warning Congress that if lawmakers pass legislation that bars the company from getting new offshore drilling permits, it may not have the money to pay for all the damages caused by its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The company says a ban would also imperil the ambitious Gulf Coast restoration efforts that officials want the company to voluntarily support.

BP executives insist that they have not backed away from their commitment to the White House to set aside $20 billion in an escrow fund over the next four years to pay damage claims and government penalties stemming from the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. The explosion killed 11 workers and spewed millions of barrels of oil into the gulf.

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