BP Co-Owns Gulf Well That Got Deepwater Permit

National Legal & Policy Center ^ | March 2, 2011 | Peter Faherty

[jazusamo]

Earlier today I accused Interior Secretary Ken Salazar of a "cynical" approach to issuing deepwater drilling permits for the Gulf of Mexico. I did not realize how right I was. According to Kristen Hays of Reuters:

BP Plc, whose Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history last year, co-owns the well that was granted the first deepwater drilling permit since the disaster.

BP is Noble Energy Inc's partner in the well, holding a 46.5 percent interest, BP said.

Noble operates the Santiago well that received a permit from U.S. regulators on Monday to resume drilling in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf, about 70 miles (110 km) south of the Louisiana coast.

I pointed out that the moratorium was a policy response by officials like Salazar who were hostile to deepwater drilling even before the BP disaster. His department's subsequent foot dragging on the issuance of permits in defiance of a court order only confirms the administration's ideological intransigence.

Instead of vilifying the entire industry, and treating BP no worse (and now better) than everyone else, why not accelerate the permitting process for safe operators and defer all BP drilling applications? According to a February 17 report by Fred Bartlit, the oil spill commission's chief counsel, the Deepwater Horizon disaster was the fault of BP, and not indicative of industry-wide safety problems.

His conclusions are now echoed by a variety of other observers. If you want to read a real eye-opener about BP's total recklessness over the years, check out an article titled "The Untold Story of the BP Gulf Oil Disaster" by Fortune reporters Peter Elkind and David Whitford in the February 7 issue. I could not find it online, but it is well worth searching out the print edition.

The reporters quote former BP CEO Tony Hayward who said, "I genuinely feel this could have happened to anyone." Hayward claimed, "This isn't BP. It's an industry accident." This is the precisely the conclusion on which current administration policy is based. And it is completely wrong.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

BP = Barack’s Pals.

[screaminsunshine]

The big payoff to the Obamacrats is paying off.

[Cicero]

BP gave Barry huge campaign donations, and then they gave him that $20 billion slush fund. Are we surprised?

I really think the Repubicans in congress need to grow a pair and simply defund the EPA. And they need to start grilling Salazar until he is forced to resign.

[FrankR]

[jazusamo]

I really think the Repubicans in congress need to grow a pair and simply defund the EPA.

Absolutely! The EPA is out of control.

Salazar was supposed to testify this morning before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee but I want to see him called to the House Oversight Committee to be grilled good.

[jazusamo]

Another good one, Frank!

[Sequoyah101]

BP ownership of Noble OPERATED well = No BFD.

BP operatorship of any well = NFW, bad idea.

The author is right on this point though. Hayward was wrong. The correction is that the incident could have happened to any company stupid enough to manage a company the way BP does, any company stupid and reckless enough to violate at least 19 fundamental oilfield safe and competent practices PRIOR to this disaster happening.

Hayward demonstrated his ignorance of all things operations related... AGAIN. If he and some of the other BP boys were half as smart as they think they are they would be a bunch of dang geniuses and they aren’t. Here is a newsflash boys, you’re no smarter and no better than Horton, former President of BP America, who said he “got things before other people because of his bigger brain.”

Unfortunately Horton, Hayward, Browne and the other arrogant sobs of BP will retire rich and before the poor puds they led to disaster.

“The reporters quote former BP CEO Tony Hayward who said, “I genuinely feel this could have happened to anyone.” Hayward claimed, “This isn’t BP. It’s an industry accident.” This is the precisely the conclusion on which current administration policy is based. And it is completely wrong.”