Tag Archives: BP
BP, Equinor Partner to Develop Offshore Wind Farms off New York, and Massachusetts
Two of Europe’s largest oil companies will develop offshore wind projects jointly in the U.S. in yet another example of energy giants migrating towards the development of renewables. Equinor of Norway, and has entered into an agreement to sell a 50% stake in two of its U.S offshore wind farm projects to Britain based BP for $1.1 Billion. Empire Wind, located just southeast of the Long Island coast, spans 80,000 acres, with water depths of between 65 and 131 feet. Beacon Wind is located 20 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and covers 128,000 acres. >click to read< 15:40
Katrina, BP, 2019 Mississippi River — Oyster Industry Braces For Another Major Disaster
The commercial fishing industry on the Gulf Coast has seen two major disasters in the last 15 years: Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. Now, some fear we’re on the cusp of a third. The culprit: historic flooding from the Mississippi River. Commercial oysterman Mitch Jurisich is picking through a pile of freshly harvested oysters at a dock in Empire, Louisiana. One hand clutches an oyster knife, the other grabs a bivalve from the top of the mound. “This one’s good right here,” he says before tossing it aside and picking up another. “This one’s not good.” Audio, >click to read< 20:28
BP deep water well off Nova Scotia lacks commercial quantities of oil
A third well exploration effort off Nova Scotia has failed to find commercially viable levels of oil in the deep waters of the Scotian Shelf. Hess Corp., the drilling partners on the BP-operated Scotian Basin Exploration Drilling Project, issued a news release Tuesday saying it will write off its share of the well cost, and BP will abandon the Aspy well.,, Environmental, fishing and Aboriginal groups have repeatedly criticized the various drilling programs as lacking sufficient response systems for potential blowouts,,, >click to read<15:14
The Mississippi Coast is tired of waiting for BP money. It is time for action.
The Coast has waited far too long to learn the fate of the $700 million that has yet to be spent out of a $750 million settlement for economic damages from BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. We know the majority of the economic damage was inflicted on the people of Mississippi’s Coast. And we know that no rational argument has been made for spending the majority of the BP economic damages money anywhere but on the Coast. The Mississippi Gulf Coast’s lifeblood, tourism, was on life support. Its seafood industry was first shutdown and then mistrusted. Millions were invested to restore the country’s faith in Gulf shrimp and other delicacies. >click to read<12:22
BP reports spill of drilling fluids in exploration operation off Nova Scotia
BP Canada has reported a spill of drilling fluids from its oil exploration operation taking place off the coast of Nova Scotia. An incident report on the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board website said there is a “preliminary estimate” that 136 cubic metres spilled from the West Aquarius drilling unit on Friday before it was stopped.The news release said an early investigation by the company indicates the spill occurred in piping about 30 metres below sea level. “Today marks only two months since BP started drilling, and already there has been a significant spill,”>click to read<10:52
Offshore drilling on the edge of the Scotian Shelf too risky
BP’s lease sites take in the southeastern corner of the “Haddock Box” which is an important haddock spawning and nursery ground that is closed to fishing. The sites are about 50 km from our exceedingly beautiful and unique Sable Island National Park. The sites are also within a few kilometres of the Gully Marine Protected Area, which is home to rare deep-water corals and the endangered northern bottlenose whales. The Labrador current and the Nova Scotia current flow down the Scotian Shelf and the Scotian Slope to the southwest. These currents, combined with easterly prevailing winds at the lease sites, place the entire Scotian Shelf and all of our major fishing banks and lobster spawning grounds in jeopardy from any major spill.>click to read<09:08
Opponents of ultra-deep BP wells off N.S. coast speaking at SMU
Eight years ago on an April evening, BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, killing 11 workers, injuring 17 more and leaking nearly five million barrels of oil into the ocean off the U.S. coast. The wellhead blowout — a combination of human error and mechanical and design insufficiencies — caused the largest oil spill in history, cost billions of dollars to mitigate, and some experts say resulted in irreparable damage to the surrounding ecosystem. With BP now approved to drill up to seven deepwater exploration wells off the coast of Nova Scotia, some are wondering if the province is at risk of its own Deepwater disaster.>click to read<11:54
Final BP seafood settlement payments a milestone
BP’s oil spill settlement with private individuals and businesses hit a major milestone this week as the court-appointed claims administrator announced the final round of payments to those most directly affected by the 2010 disaster, fishermen and seafood businesses. The third and last round of payments in the settlement’s $2.3 billion seafood compensation fund totals $520 million, and claims administrator Patrick Juneau said payment letters will go out next week. He says that will provide a major influx of money into the coastal economy for shrimpers, crabbers, oystermen and fin fishermen. Juneau, whom BP once accused of “hijacking” the settlement and barraged with personal attacks for the balance of two years, says this final step is a hard-earned result of BP and plaintiff’s lawyers turning over a new leaf and working together. But a coalition of fishing leaders called GO Fish remains disappointed with the slow pace of claims payments. There was also a hiccup last December when hundreds of fishing claimants were identified as potential fraud cases, a mistake that scared people on Christmas Eve and wasn’t resolved for several months. Read the story here 18:57
BP Drops drop its bid to avoid paying 1 Billion Seafood Industry Spill Payments
After fighting for more than two years to avoid paying almost $1 billion in oil spill damages to Gulf Coast shrimpers, oystermen and seafood processors it claimed didn’t exist, BP Plc has thrown in the towel. A federal judge in New Orleans Monday allowed BP to drop its bid to avoid paying the second half of $2.3 billion in compensation promised to seafood interests harmed by the blown-out well. The subsea gusher pumped more than 4 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, closing fisheries and blackening the shores of five states. BP had paid out about $1 billion of the seafood fund when it balked at paying the remainder after discovering irregularities in one law firm’s client list. The seafood payout is a separate earmark within BP’s Read the rest here 07:23
Defense attorney: Texas lawyer indicted over oil spill fraud
A Texas lawyer, San Antonio attorney Mikal Watts, faces criminal charges after he was accused of submitting thousands of false claims for damages from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The British oil giant sued Watts in 2013, alleging that more than half the clients were “phantoms,” people whom Watts never properly signed up, people who weren’t commercial fishermen or people who were dead. BP said claims officials could verify the Social Security numbers of only 42 percent of Watts’ claimants, and Read the rest here 09:56
Gulf states reach $18.7 billion settlement with BP over 2010 oil spill
The settlement announcement comes as a federal judge was preparing to rule on how much the British oil giant owed in federal Clean Water Act penalties after millions of gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf. BP was leasing the Deepwater Horizon rig in April 2010 when it exploded and sank off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 crewmen and releasing some 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf. Read the rest here 12:48
NOAA Study Ties Deepwater Horizon Spill To Dolphin Deaths
These findings support those of a 2011 health assessment of live dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, a heavily oiled area during the spill which showed those resident dolphins had poor health, adrenal disease, and lung disease. The timing and nature of the detected lesions support that contaminants from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused these lesions and contributed to the high numbers of dolphin deaths within this oil spill’s footprint. Increased dolphin deaths after the oil spill are part of the northern Gulf of Mexico unusual mortality event investigation. Read the rest here 07:59
Oil Dispersant Used After Deepwater Horizon Spill May Cause Lung Damage
It turns out that an oil-dispersal agent that was used to help control the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may contribute to the damage of cells in lungs. Scientists have taken a closer look at Corexit EC9500A and have discovered that it very well could cause problems for both wildlife and humans. Read the rest here 12:28
BP spill continues to threaten Gulf wildlife, says Enviro group
“Given the significant quantity of oil remaining on the floor of the Gulf and the unprecedented large-scale use of dispersants during the spill, it will be years or even decades before the full impact of the Deepwater Horizon disaster is known,” the report said. “It is clear that robust scientific monitoring of the Gulf ecosystem and its wildlife populations must continue — and that restoration of degraded ecosystems should begin as soon as possible.” Read the rest here 11:58
Third phase of BP trial to establish environmental penalties opens with graphic reminders
Images of oil-coated birds and testimony about “widespread socio-cultural harm” opened the third phase of a trial to establish environmental penalties BP must pay for spilling millions of barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The government wants the oil giant to pay another $13.7 billion for harming not just the birds and fish, but the business climate and social fabric of coastal communities. Read the rest here 20:27
Could BP, Feds settle in massive 2010 oil spill civil case? Experts weigh in
BP faces a top fine of $13.7 billion for its role in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, down from a possible $18 billion after a federal judge ruled Thursday that the spill was smaller than the federal government had estimated. Legal experts count the ruling as a victory for BP,, The Justice Department and BP have spent months preparing for the three-week trial, which will determine how much BP owes in pollution fines under the Clean Water Act. Read the rest here 17:52
Fisherman maintains family consumed over 10,000 pounds of seafood each season! BP Balks!
The claim, filed by New Orleans-based law firm Herman Herman & Katz, contends that Plaquemines Parish resident Kim Champlin, of Buras, and his extended family, routinely ate 6,500 pounds of oysters, 3,300 pounds of shrimp, 550 pounds of blue crabs and 100 pounds of redfish in the year leading up to the oil spill. According to BP’s filing, Champlain received just over $250,000 from the settlement trust fund as a result of the claim. Read the rest here 12:03
BP’s Politico puff piece wasn’t just shady journalism ethics — it was mostly a lie
BP, with a huge assist from the popular Beltway-insider website Politico, stirred up the muddy waters of the Deepwater Horizon spill aftermath this week when it published a corporate-love-letter-disguised-as-news entitled, “No, BP Didn’t Ruin the Gulf.” Anyone expecting humility from a firm whose court-certified wanton negligence killed 11 people and seriously polluted America’s most precious natural resource clearly hasn’t followed the story lately. Read the rest here 13:10
BP still in the frame for Gulf of Mexico fish lesions
‘We can’t say with 100 per cent certainty that it was the Deepwater Horizon oil spill’, explained Steven Murawski, marine science professor at the University of South Florida, ‘but we can say what it wasn’t. The findings, published in Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, were disputed by BP. According to Geoff Morrell, a senior vice president with BP, such lesions ‘have long been observed in the Gulf and have little effect on a species’ health or population.’ <Read more here> 11:34
USF Study: Skin Lesions on Fish Decline Years After BP Oil Spill
Scientists studying the impact of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the health of fish in the Gulf of Mexico have found strong evidence that an outbreak of skin lesions and oil residue signatures discovered in fishes a year after the spill may be related to the catastrophe. Read more here 15:17
Shrimpers cited for fishing in BP closure zone – Catch dumped back into the water
BATON ROUGE – Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Enforcement Division agents cited numerous fishermen on May 26 for allegedly fishing in the BP oil spill emergency commercial fishing closure zone. Agents seized and returned the shrimp taken to the water since they were considered a public health risk to the consuming public. Read more here 06:55
BP to ask Supreme Court to hear claims issue
NEW ORLEANS — BP PLC said Wednesday it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether businesses must prove they were directly harmed by the 2010 Gulf Of Mexico oil spill to collect payments from a 2012 settlement. Read more here 16:13
BP oil spill: methane persisted in sea after microbe cleanup
As much as half a million tonnes of natural gas, 80 percent of it methane, leaked into the deep sea as a result of the blowout on April 20, 2010, on BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig. The leak triggered a surprising “bloom” of marine bacteria that feasted on the gassy hydrocarbon plume. The bugs did indeed remove a significant amount of the gas, but their population crashed while the leak was still in progress, it said. Read more here 12:15
“I believe BP is winning.” – How a Gulf Settlement That BP Once Hailed Became Its Target
“In the beginning they was all real nice,” said Barry Labruzzo, a 35-year-old shrimper from Slidell, La. Mr. Labruzzo received an emergency payment from Mr. Feinberg’s operation in the early days of the spill, while also putting in a claim for lost business revenue. He was confident he would be paid quickly. “They would tell us we don’t even need a lawyer,” he said. nyt.com Read more here 17:46
How BP turned a whole community into an endangered species
The reason: the BP oil spill disaster of 2010, which dumped over 205 million gallons of oil and another 2 million gallons of possibly toxic dispersants into the Gulf, devastating the area that’s responsible for 40 percent of the seafood sold commercially across the U.S. grist.org Read more here 10:57
Fishermen say impacts still linger from BP oil spill – video
“We believe this disaster has greatly impacted the ability of fisheries to spawn. And that’s why they’re not seeing the fisheries they used to. They’re not catching what they used to. We believe that the spawning ability has been greatly impacted,” said Thao Vo, an advocate for fishing families. Read more here wlox 20:02
Time for BP to get out of the oil business! – Coast Guard, EPA respond to oil discharge in Lake Michigan from BP Whiting Refinery
WHITING, Ind. — The Coast Guard and the EPA are responding to the report of an oil discharge into Lake Michigan from the BP Whiting Refinery in Whiting, Ind. The Coast Guard received a report Monday night from watchstanders the National Response Center of a sheen from an unknown substance discharging from an outflow adjacent to the refinery. Read more here 18:21
Deepwater Horizon oil left tuna, other species with heart defects likely to prove fatal
The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill struck at the very heart of fish, a new study says. Exposed to millions of gallons of crude, young tuna and amberjack, some of the speediest predators in the ocean, developed heart defects that are likely to limit their ability to catch food. Read more here wapo 09:02
25 Years After Exxon Valdez, BP Was the Hidden Culprit
Two decades ago I was the investigator for the legal team that sold you the bullshit that a drunken captain was the principal cause of the Exxon Valdez disaster, the oil tanker crackup that poisoned over a thousand miles of Alaska’s coastline 25 years ago on March 24, 1989. The truth is far uglier, and the real culprit—British Petroleum, now BP—got away without a scratch to its reputation or to its pocketbook. Read more here 15:57
BP Must Cover Business Losses Without Evidence
Business-loss claims under a civil settlement related to the Deepwater Horizon disaster do not evidence of causation, the 5th Circuit ruled Monday. This marks the second time that BP failed to sway the court with,,, Read more here courthousenews 11:32
