Thread: I guess BP stands for "Broken Promises"

Originally Posted by welshwizard

To quote the New Scientist Magazine "all technology fails eventually"
It always seems to suprise us when it does.
It doesn't take a genius to work out that drilling for oil at that depth brings huge risks, not all of which can be avoided.

While that is true, BP management knew all the problems beforehand. They were warned that the concrete was faulty, skipped a number of safety measures and structural reinforcements and ignored the engineers requests for more testing, in order to start pumping up oil faster.

This is not technology failure. This is management failure.

Natural oil seeps are common in the gulf to a degree I
was not aware.

Oil Seeps in the Gulf of Mexico : Image of the Day

This image is more current and marks the "Deepwater Horizon" rig.

Oil Leak Continues in Gulf of Mexico : Natural Hazards

The shore impact will continue for months even if the well
was shut 100% today.


So the real question becomes what shave soap best washes off oil?

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

So the real question becomes what shave soap best washes off oil?

Duh! Oil-based soap, of course.

Originally Posted by Bruno

BP management knew all the problems beforehand.
This is not technology failure. This is management failure.

I suppose that there will be an enquiry sometime down the the line.
Management failure in business is probably more common than technology failure.
Governments often seem to be ready to turn a blind eye to management risk taking when large wealth creation schemes are in train.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

10 to 1 they do go bankrupt and leave the US citizens holding the bag. Then they reorganize under a different corporate name and begin raking in the billions as if nothing ever happened.

Bet they already have it "in the works" behind the scenes... Honesty and integrity is something that seems to be a thing of the past.

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

This isn't obvious to me at all. The leak hasn't even been stopped yet so how can we know it is obvious they don't have the capacity or resources to clean it up afterward? If they stop the leak (which zib says can't be done) and they then demonstrate neither capacity nor resources to clean up the mess, then they have broken that particular promise. I was also led to believe I could hope for a change in federal responses to environmental disasters, but it seems like whatever the fed does only makes things worse. At least that's how it seems to me

You're right. I should have said "contain and clean up...", though I'm not sure how they're going to get the oil out of the wetlands without some form of magic.

If I get a chance I'll see if I can find the NPR interview that I heard this on.

This incident should be enough to ban all underwater oil drilling forever anywhere in the world or at least in the waters surrounding North , Central, and South America !!!!!

Originally Posted by MARKHOLLADAY

This incident should be enough to ban all underwater oil drilling forever anywhere in the world or at least in the waters surrounding North , Central, and South America !!!!!

# 1	United States:	20,680,000 bbl/day	2007
# 3	China:	7,578,000 bbl/day	2007
# 4	Japan:	5,007,000 bbl/day	2007

The oil has to come from somewhere. Perhaps, as the largest consumer, the USA should bear the brunt of the pollution risk.

Originally Posted by welshwizard

# 1	United States:	20,680,000 bbl/day	2007
# 3	China:	7,578,000 bbl/day	2007
# 4	Japan:	5,007,000 bbl/day	2007

The oil has to come from somewhere. Perhaps, as the largest consumer, the USA should bear the brunt of the pollution risk.

Actually, the 2009 figures show the European Union right behind the U.S. @ 14M+ bbl/day.

population estimates for the USA are 307m and 501m for the EU so not quite so bad per head of population

ian