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19 Sep 2010 19:09

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U.S.: BP finally plugs the damn hole

  • 153 days it took BP to kill the Deepwater Horizon oil rig
  • 206m gallons of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico
  • 2% drop in Obama’s approval since the spill source

08 Sep 2010 11:07

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U.S.: Gulf oil spill: BP tries to shift some of the blame with report

  • The company just released a 193-page report on the spill. Claiming “a complex and interlinked series of mechanical failures, human judgments, engineering design, operational implementation and team interfaces,” BP’s new report tries to spread the blame in a number of places, noting some design flaws but also focusing more on the cement job on the well (done by Haliburton) and failings of the workers on the rig (who were Transocean employees) and trying not to shoulder all the blame themselves. Consider the report an attempt at shoring up PR and a preview of future court cases. source

04 Sep 2010 21:19

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U.S.: Thad Allen: The Macondo oil well is no longer in danger of leaking

  • I’m very pleased to announce that with the new blowout preventer on this well, and the cement that was previously put in … that this well does not constitute a threat to the Gulf of Mexico at this point.
  • Thad “I don’t get paid enough for this #(&@” Allen • Claiming that BP’s leaky well is no longer a threat of breaking anymore. There’s a lot of stuff blocking the Macondo well, like a 5,000-foot column of cement. And it’s only going to become more secure soon enough – the bottom kill still needs to be done. At which point work will focus on the relief well and abandoning the old well. So, that’s something. source

02 Sep 2010 16:00

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U.S.: Three differences between today’s oil rig explosion and the BP spill

  • it’s not nearly as deep The Deepwater Horizon explosion took place in waters 5,000 feet deep. The rig that exploded today sits in a mere 340 feet of water, making it easier to repair.
  • everyone survived None of the workers were killed in today’s explosion, and they all floated to safety afterwards. In contrast, eleven workers died in the BP explosion.
  • it might be leak-freeAlthough a mile-wide sheen was spotted off the coast of Louisiana, there’s not yet any evidence that any new oil is actually leaking. *fingers crossed* source

30 Aug 2010 09:10

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Biz: BP partly pins oil spill blame on engineers who can’t read

  • Apparently, they misread an April 20 report on the well. Remember this thing and how it used to be in the news every day? Yeah. Anyway, Bloomberg’s reporting that, according to a BP internal investigation, managers on the rig misread a report saying that pressure levels were very high, leading to the Deepwater Horizon’s destruction. Attorneys for BP have also worked on sullying the names of Transocean and Haliburton, which thus far haven’t stuck. source

17 Aug 2010 10:48

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U.S.: Pretend you’re a fisherman: How to get in on some of BP’s cash

  • Apparently, ten percent of claims could be fraudulent. BP, because they’ve bungled just about everything else related to the oil spill, has apparently bungled the claims process, too, with some people pretending to be fishermen just to get some money from the company. But it goes both ways – some con artists have pretended to be BP employees to scam people deserving of money. Note: People suck sometimes. source

14 Aug 2010 12:32

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U.S.: Oil spill: So, BP apparently did the top and bottom kill all wrong

  • Bottom kill first! Bottom kill first! BP is ready to drill a relief well after learning from tests that there’s still a risk of oil leaking from the plugged-up hole (and the U.S. called them out for it). In fact, they totally got ripped for it by some experts. “It would have been easier and safer to kill the well with the relief well,” said former petroleum engineer Les Ply. “When it is cemented from the bottom, you can be assured the well is dead.” source
 

11 Aug 2010 10:57

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Biz: BP station owners caught between a rock and a hard place

  • rockDue to the oil spill, many individual station owners have seen business fall flat – some as many as 50 percent, but most around a more modest 5 percent after an early freefall in sales.
  • hard placeHowever, despite the stations mostly not being owned by BP, many owners have a contract with the company for 15-20 years that could lead to heavy fines if the contract’s broken early. source

09 Aug 2010 09:46

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Biz: BP updates its massive oil spill tab: It’s pretty darn massive

  • $6.1 billion spent on the Gulf Oil Spill so far; they’ve made over 100,000 payments as of August 7th
  • $319 million paid out in compensation to people negatively affected by the spill –around 145,000 claims source

06 Aug 2010 14:42

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Biz: Does BP has its sights on drilling around the Macondo well again?

  • YES they have to pay for those lawsuits somehow source