The U.S. government banned BP Plc on Wednesday from new federal contracts over its "lack of business integrity" in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, possibly imperiling the company's role as a top U.S. offshore oil and gas producer and the No. 1 military fuel supplier.
BP declined to comment and a spokesman for Exxon said in an email that it was "not our practice to comment on market speculation, rumors or media reports."
traders citing talk that Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) was considering a bid for the oil company
Click on the following for more details: BP gains, traders cite Exxon bid talk | Reuters
BP oil workers on Alaska’s North Slope say that another deadly accident or environmental disaster could happen at any time because of BP’s continued cost-cutting and inattention to aging systems there.
ProPublica analysis of state and federal records revealed that BP has fared far worse in the United States than the rest of the industry in terms of spills and serious safety violations.
“BP's cost-cutting measures had really cut into their plant maintenance, into their training, into their investment in new and safer equipment,” Barab said. “When you start finding the same problems over and over again, I think you are pretty safe in saying they've got a systematic problem.”
Click on the following to read the rest of the story: ProPublica
The Interior Department issued new safety and spill-response regulations for offshore oil and gas drilling on Thursday, but gave no hint of when the moratorium on deepwater operations will be lifted.
— governing blowout preventers, safety certification, well design, emergency response and worker training — provide offshore drillers with clarity on the terms under which drilling will resume when the current freeze ends….rules take effect immediately under emergency rule-making powers
Sounds like an ultimatum?
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.
BP is particularly concerned about a drilling overhaul bill passed by the House on July 30. The bill includes an amendment that would bar any company from receiving permits to drill on the Outer Continental Shelf if more than 10 fatalities had occurred at its offshore or onshore facilities. It would also bar permits if the company had been penalized with fines of $10 million or more under the Clean Air or Clean Water Acts within a seven-year period.
While BP is not mentioned by name in the legislation, it is the only company that currently meets that description.
Sounds like an ultimatum?
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.
fish were found Sunday floating on the surface of the water and collected in booms that had been deployed to contain oil that leaked from the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico…, "We don't want to jump to any conclusions because we've had some oxygen issues by the Bayou La Loutre Dam from time to time."
A government report finds that about 26 percent of the oil released from BP’s runaway well is still in the water or onshore in a form that could, in principle, cause new problems. But most is light sheen at the ocean surface or in a dispersed form below the surface, and federal scientists believe that it is breaking down rapidly in both places.
Click on the following for more details: Oil in Gulf Poses Only Slight Risk, New U.S. Report Says - NYTimes.com
BP to sell $30 billion in assets before 2012 to pay for costs related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP on Tuesday set aside $32.2 billion to deal with the aftermath of the spill, leading to a record second-quarter loss of $17 billion. That compared with a $4.4 billion profit in the period a year ago.
Adam Hunger/Reuters
Robert Dudley is to become BP’s first non-British chief executive at the beginning of October, replacing Tony Hayward.
Click on the following for more details: Dudley Vows to Fulfill BP’s Commitments in the Gulf - NYTimes.com
BP PLC declined to comment Sunday on a report that it is in talks about possibly selling $12 billion worth of assets, including a stake in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay oil field, to U.S. oil company Apache Corp.
Sunday Times separately said that ExxonMobil is considering a bid for BP. Citing oil industry sources, the paper said ExxonMobil had approached the Obama administration for clearance to make a takeover offer.
Click on the following for more details: Daily Herald | Report: BP ponders $12 bil. asset sale to Apache
Click on the following for more details: BP approaching SWFs over strategic stake: source | Reuters
But an examination of the American tax code indicates that oil production is among the most heavily subsidized businesses, with tax breaks available at virtually every stage of the exploration and extraction process.
According to the most recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, released in 2005, capital investments like oil field leases and drilling equipment are taxed at an effective rate of 9 percent, significantly lower than the overall rate of 25 percent for businesses in general and lower than virtually any other industry.
We’re giving tax breaks to highly profitable companies to do what they would be doing anyway,” said Sima J. Gandhi, a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, a liberal research organization. “That’s not an incentive; that’s a giveaway.”
Click on the following for more details: Oil Companies Reap Billions From Subsidies - NYTimes.com
We keep track so you don’t have to. Some of the lowlights so far, in no particular order.
- Some Republicans falsely claimed Obama was slowing the cleanup by not waiving the Jones Act, which actually doesn’t apply to the cleanup operations.
- Obama said he issued a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf. Not quite. Much drilling continues.
- A Republican governor keeps saying the spill is the first big blowout in the Gulf, failing to note a 1979 disaster that continued for 10 months, and numerous smaller blowouts.
- A DNC ad claimed that a GOP lawmaker spoke for his party when he said BP deserves an apology. But that apology had already been rejected by other leading Republicans.
Click on the following for more details: Oil Spill Whoppers | FactCheck.org
new federal rule, which took effect earlier this week, aims to get more cleanup equipment to the Gulf by lowering Coast Guard and EPA requirements for cleanup equipment elsewhere.
Washington state law requires the oil industry be able to respond to a worst-case scenario that in some areas could involve a spill of millions of gallons of oil or refined fuels.
15 big vessels known as Responders that are outfitted with skimmers and other equipment. So far, 12 of them, including two from California, are either working in the Gulf or on their way
Click on the following for more details: Local News | Local oil-spill-response vessels may be needed in the Gulf | Seattle Times Newspaper
BP is moving ahead with a controversial and potentially record-setting project to drill two miles under the sea and then six to eight miles horizontally to reach what is believed to be a 100-million-barrel reservoir of oil under federal waters.
BP’s project, called Liberty, has been exempted as regulators have granted it status as an “onshore” project even though it is about three miles off the coast in the Beaufort Sea. The reason: it sits on an artificial island — a 31-acre pile of gravel in about 22 feet of water — built by BP.
Click on the following for more details: BP Is Pursuing Alaska Drilling Some Call Risky - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in New Orleans on Tuesday blocked a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling projects that the Obama administration imposed in response to the vast oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The White House swiftly said the administration would appeal the decision. …
Judge Feldman — a 1983 appointee of former President Ronald Reagan — wrote that the Obama administration had failed to justify the need for the sweeping suspension, which he characterized as “generic, indeed punitive.”…
state of Louisiana filed a brief supporting the lawsuit, arguing that the moratorium would damage its economy.
Click on the following for more details: Judge Blocks Deep-Water Drilling Moratorium - NYTimes.com
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Wed, June 16, 2010 -- 11:58 AM ET
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BP Agrees to Place About $20 Billion in Escrow for Spill Claims
executive pay under the TARP program. President Obama
demanded the creation of such a fund in his national address about the oil spill Tuesday evening, and met with company executives at the White House on Wednesday.
Here is a transcript of tonight’s speech.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT TO THE NATION ON THE BP OIL SPILL
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release June 15, 2010
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE NATION
ON THE BP OIL SPILL
Oval Office
8:01 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. As we speak, our nation faces a multitude of challenges. At home, our top priority is to recover and rebuild from a recession that has touched the lives of nearly every American. Abroad, our brave men and women in uniform are taking the fight to al Qaeda wherever it exists. And tonight, I’ve returned from a trip to the Gulf Coast to speak with you about the battle we’re waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens
Click on the following for the full text of the President’s Speech: Radio Chicagoland News & Views: REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT TO THE NATION ON THE BP OIL SPILL
In Louisiana, so far the only known coastal victim of the gusher's oil, tourists and seafood wholesalers spend about $1.5 billion a year, according to government figures. Mississippi and Alabama rely on tourism and seafood for at least $5 billion.
Moody's noted that personal income jumped nearly 10 percent in Alaska in 1989 after the Exxon Valdez spill.
But ultimately the spill cost Alaska about $2.8 billion in economic activity, thanks in part to the severe damage to the Pacific herring fishery.
The Moody's report saves some of its grimmest hypotheticals for Florida, which has yet to be linked with any oil from the Deepwater well.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/28/1652092_p2/spills-economic-fallout-called.html#ixzz0pUJVnrl0
Click on the following for more details: Spill's economic fallout called long term - Business - MiamiHerald.com
