Tag Archives: BP

BP safety talk is really about shareholders

The creation by BP of a new global safety unit with “sweeping powers” has the safety of shareholders’ money as its “ultimate goal”, the company’s top boss has admitted. In a 1 October news release from the oil giant’s London HQ announcing the “powerful new organisation”, BP chair Carl-Henric Svanberg said there were “difficult challenges […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

BP may emerge unscathed after 11 deaths

The share price of UK oil multinational BP soared this week after the company indicated the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico had been “killed”. The company has spent five months attempting to seal its Macondo well, after a 20 April explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and triggered an environmental […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , | Comments closed

Deregulation’s deadly reality gulf

Governments listen to business. Left to them, there’s three certainties in life – deregulation, disasters and workplace deaths and diseases. In a new campaign, we remind them that ‘We didn’t vote to die at work.’
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

No clean start for BP

CLEAN START? Producing oil may be a high risk business, particularly if you plumb unmanageable depths in the world’s oceans. But BP’s problem stems from its first priority: producing profits.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , | Comments closed

Who pays BP’s disaster bill? You do

If you thought the multi-billion dollar costs of destroying refineries and oil rigs (and killing workers, ruining livelihoods and wrecking the environment in the process), might have a chastening effect on BP, you might need to think again. An entry in the blog of nationally syndicated US journalist Thom Hartmann notes: “It looks like the […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , | Comments closed

UK government to adopt BP business model

John Browne, Tony Hayward’s predecessor as chief executive of BP, has been appointed by the UK government to oversee moves to make Whitehall “more businesslike.” Lord Browne was the architect of the much criticised BP cost- and safety-cutting strategy implicated in the Texas City refinery disaster, which killed 15, and a sequence of other safety […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Oil companies all fail the safety test

Members of the US Congress tore into the big energy corporations on 15 June for filing almost identical Gulf of Mexico oil spill response plans – which included contact details for a deceased scientist and steps to protect marine mammals not found in the region’s waters. Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell all have identical response […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Competition: Spot the idiotic inconsistency

It’s a story that owes more to the ostrich than the oil covered pelican. The 14 June screen grab from the front page of the UK Prime Minister’s website shows David Cameron in a phone call to US President Barack Obama, discussing the Gulf of Mexico oil spill calamity. Cameron’s spokesperson commented: “The prime minister […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

Don’t demonise BP bosses, jail them

Can you have serial crimes but no criminal? BP’s well-heeled directors have proved as slippery as the gulf’s oil smeared coastline, with none so far facing criminal charges relating to the Deepwater Horizon disaster or other deadly incidents. BP’s cavalier but usually profitable management practices have been implicated in a series of disasters. The company […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments closed

Rig explosion killed, spill made workers sick

A chemical dispersant being used to fight the gulf oil spill is making workers sick, recent reports suggest. The disaster, where BP has repeatedly failed to stem the oil gusher and which started with a 20 April explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers, has led to an increasing clamour for criminal […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , | Comments closed