Will they fix that oil spill thingie or do they just wait....

[MrFun]

Those at the top are responsible for those at the bottom. If they claim they weren't aware what was going on, it still reflects poorly on them. It's this responsibility is what they get paid the big bucks for.

I read this as Dashi saying that the executives get paid high salaries because their responsibility is to manage all levels of their company.


Damn it Asher, you DanSed me.

[Asher]

Why not call for the blood of BP shareholders? They're the CEO's boss. chain of command, *****es.

[Asher]

I read this as Dashi saying that the executives get paid high salaries because their responsibility is to manage all levels of their company.

I hope DaShi wasn't saying that, because that's even more stupid.

Who in their right mind thinks the CEO manages highly technical low-level oil field operations?

[MrFun]

I'm not agreeing with Dashi - just explaining what I thought he was saying.

[DaShi]

Yes, they are ultimately responsible by chain of command. He will be punished for it.

But the vitriol by the public is ****ing ridiculous aimed at the CEO. BP has nearly 100,000 employees all over the world, and probably hundreds of thousands more are directly involved in BP's operations. The CEO can't micromanage the highly technical day-to-day aspects of every part of their business.

The whole thing is epicly ****ing retarded. If it comes out that the company HQ's rules were unsafe or unsavoury, then we can blame him. But if it's just a ****up by a sub-contractor/contractor/low level field operations you can't trace that up to the top and blame the guy pulling in the big money just because he brings in the big money.

Yes, but the anger is at BP itself and the CEO is the face of the corporation. It might not be right, but it is understandable.

[Asher]

It's not understandable, just predictable. People are stupid.

[DaShi]

I hope DaShi wasn't saying that, because that's even more stupid.

Who in their right mind thinks the CEO manages highly technical low-level oil field operations?

Yup, he should have been on each oil rig tightening all the bolts.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

And so comes the rationalization that pervaded this thread from the beginning. Substitute Obama for CEO and Federal government for BP.

Epically retarded.

[Heraclitus]

First I was tempted to say people just like to put a face on the entity they blame, and that perhaps they know more faces in the Federal goverment than in BP. But then I remembered how retarded it was to expect people to know any face in the goverment except the top dogs and even that is iffy. Seriusly just 1% of them know all the supreme justices, that's like less than 3 mil.


I think in a perverted way people consider the US to be *their* tribe on a fundamental level while any corporation is "that other tribe".

People don't like attacking their own tribal leader if they don't feel they are a part of a coalition to overthrow him. Attacking the other tribes leader is always ok thou.

[DaShi]

Yeah, none of that is correct.

[BeBMan]

Something that worked:

Oil company BP says it has cut a ruptured pipe from the leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well, a key step in the latest effort to cap the well.

BP chief Tony Hayward hailed it as an "important milestone" and said BP could know within the next 12 to 24 hours if the capping effort will succeed.

For now, undersea robots are preparing the well head to receive the cap.

President Barack Obama is to visit the gulf on Friday, his third trip there since the leak began six weeks ago.

News of the trip came with the White House under increasing pressure to show the administration is in control of the response and clean-up efforts.
Florida threat

Adm Thad Allen, the US official overseeing the response effort, said BP used giant shears manipulated by undersea robots to snip off the end of the pipe, after a diamond-edged saw failed to do the job.

The challenge is now to place a containment cap securely over the cut and stop the oil flow. The company hopes to collect the oil on a surface ship above the well.

The latest news came after a sheen of oil from the spill was seen within 10 miles of the white-sand beaches of the Florida "panhandle" region.
Attempt to cap oil leak

BP is attempting to siphon oil from the top of the blowout preventer, the set of failed valves on the seabed. The plan is to lower a cap onto the upper section of the blowout preventer known as the lower marine riser package (LMRP).

The damaged riser - the pipe which takes oil from the well - was cut where it nears the seabed using a remotely-operated shear. This was completed at 1930 CDT on 1 June (0030 GMT 2 June).

The next stage was for a diamond wire cutter to saw through the riser close to the LMRP. The blade got stuck and had to be removed but BP eventually cut through the pipe using giant shears manipulated by undersea robots (ROV).

After removing the pipe, the next stage is for a cap to be lowered onto the LMRP, forming a tight seal. Lines containing methanol stop hydrates forming which could block the oil flowing up to the drill ship.

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'Fair criticism'

Meanwhile, BP said it would pay for the construction of six sand barriers off the coast of the US state of Louisiana.

The barriers are designed to protect fragile wetlands from the huge oil slick that has leaked from the well.

On Wednesday, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced that the White House had ordered BP to pay for the construction of the sand barriers. He was speaking at an emotional news conference after touring the wetlands.

Mr Jindal has strongly criticised the Obama administration and BP over the past few days for being too slow to respond to the crisis.

"Every day they wait, every day they make us wait, we're losing our battle to protect our coast," he said.
BP IN NUMBERS
Continue reading the main story

* Profits in 2009: $13.96bn (£8.75bn)
* Clean-up costs so far: $990m (£674m)
* Estimated cost of sand barrier project $360m (£244m)
* Dividend payment 2009: $10.5bn (£7bn)
* BP scheduled to make a first-quarter dividend payment to shareholders on 21 June
* At its worst BP saw 34% wiped off the company's value
* Share prices on London Stock Exchange fell from a pre-disaster high of 655.4 pence to 429.75p

Mr Jindal maintains the sand barriers would block oil from the fragile wetlands on the Louisiana coast, which scientists and officials say would be near impossible to clean once they become inundated with oil.

In a statement, BP said it was "committed to implementing the most effective measures to protect the coastline of Louisiana".

Meanwhile, BP chief executive Tony Hayward said it was "entirely fair criticism" to say his company was unprepared for the deep-water disaster.
Plummeting share prices

In an interview with the Financial Times newspaper, he said: "We did not have the tools you would want in your toolkit."

Two Democratic senators have written to Mr Hayward urging him to suspend payments to shareholders worth $10bn until all costs of the clean-up and compensation are paid out.

BP estimates that the disaster has so far cost the company approximately $990m in clean-up costs.

The sand barrier project will push BP's bill to about $1.4bn.

BP share prices have continued to plummet in trading on the London Stock Exchange, amid news the US justice department has opened several civil and criminal inquiries into the Gulf spill.

Oil washes up on an Alabama beach

Obama has used the disaster to urge Congress to pass a bill to overhaul US energy policy and end tax breaks for oil companies.

The oil began leaking into the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April when the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, leased to BP, exploded, killing 11 workers.

BP is drilling two relief wells to permanently stop the leak but they are not expected to be completed until August.

A "top kill" procedure, which had been considered the best hope for plugging the leak, failed over the weekend when engineers were unable to pump enough heavy mud into the well to staunch the oil flow.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/10230252.stm

[Wezil]

Asher - It's a question of due diligence. They will need to show they had proper training, procedures, monitoring, etc. in place to ensure this sort of thing didn't happen. That is their responsibility.

If this was done and a "low level contractor" screwed up they may be okay.

[Asher]

Asher - It's a question of due diligence. They will need to show they had proper training, procedures, monitoring, etc. in place to ensure this sort of thing didn't happen. That is their responsibility.

If this was done and a "low level contractor" screwed up they may be okay.

Yes, I thought I was saying this.

If it comes out that the company HQ's rules were unsafe or unsavoury, then we can blame him. But if it's just a ****up by a sub-contractor/contractor/low level field operations you can't trace that up to the top and blame the guy pulling in the big money just because he brings in the big money.

I'm upset with people who want to vilify the guy at the top just because he's at the top.

[Wezil]

That was what I was responding to. You are correct.

I suspect there will be two separate actions requiring a DD defence: 1) the original drilling and accident and 1) the cleanup.

The big failing I see with 1) there appears to have been no reasonable plan of what to do in the event of a blowout. Surely this was foreseeable?

[Asher]

That's why many countries, like Canada, legislate mandatory relief wells. They must be drilled within the same drilling season as the primary well.