Oil Executives Tell Committee That BP Spill Is an Aberration

[TomCADem]

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — The chief executives of the world’s largest oil companies faced a Congressional panel of inquisitors on Tuesday and tried to cast the BP spill as a rare event that their companies were not likely to repeat.

In their prepared remarks, the executives said that continued offshore exploration and drilling were essential to American oil and gas supplies and to the health of their industry.

In a moment of Capitol Hill drama reminiscent of the grilling of tobacco industry executives in 1994, the oil company officials were summoned by the House Energy and Commerce Committee to justify offshore drilling and explain how their safety practices differed from BP’s.

Rex W. Tillerson, chairman of Exxon Mobil, said in prepared testimony that if companies follow proper well design, drilling, maintenance and training procedures accidents like Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20 “should not occur,” implying that BP had failed to do so.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/business/16oil.html

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The oil industry will try to push the myth that BP is an aberration, and that the damage due to the gulf is not due to millions of gallons of oil being released, but due to an ineffective federal response. Afterall, if you had a proper federal response, you could spill oil with impunity!

:sarcasm:

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. I don't care if it is a once in a century event.

No plans to contain it, not worth the risk.

They are still relying on "best practices" from 30 years ago. Had they had foresight and invested some of their gargantuan profits in cleanup and containment (and PREVENTION!), I might have a slight sliver of sympathy for the cause. Ever so slight...

[Autumn]

2. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought I

had heard that the oil now spewing into the Gulf from their well was going to the Asian markets. So how is it essential to American oil and gas supplies? I think it must just be essential to the health of their industry. The profits when the oil is sold do not go into our coffers do they?

[polichick]

3. Yep - it's sold on the world market. The U.S. gets paid royalties and...

...the oil companies get profits - doesn't impact our imports or the price of gas.

[rainy]

8. I heard the oil goes to refineries on the gulf coast creating jobs

etc... that is why there is so much lamenting over lost jobs in those states. The oil does not belong to us of course it is BP's to sell anywhere it wants.

[Autumn]

10. Makes some sense, but I can not wrap my

brain around how it is essential to our energy independence.

[rainy]

13. I was asking the same things to a local reporter and he said

because we can always buy from BP and other's who are friendly to the US if OPAC goes against us or something like that.

[zipplewrath]

4. Ya know, they're probably right

I've little doubt that they could follow procedures that would render these kinds of incidents nonexistent.

Here's the problem. Some idiot is gonna try to save a buck, or save a week, by doing something dumb. And no one will "catch" him until after 2 million barrels are floating around the gulf.

Most accidents are "preventable" by following simple, well known, safety procedures. And they continue to happen because people choose not to follow those procedures.

[TomCADem]

24. Its All Speculation, Because How Do You Test The Ability To Cap A Well In Deep Water?

You don't know whether you can do it until it happens? Also, what about hurricanes or other natural disasters? A common myth pushed by Bobby Jindal is that Katrina did not result in the spillage of oil into the gulf from oil platforms. This is not true. Now, what happens if or when the next deep water well blows up or dramatically fails?

The bottom line is that we simply do not have the technology to promptly shut down such a well. The oil pressure at that depth is more than a ton psi compared to 15 pounds psi near the surface. That is more inhospitable than outer space. There is more abberration. This is not a black swan. Instead, it is an event that grows increasingly likely the more we drill.

[SemperEadem]

5. well then it's an aberration that's negatively impacting

a lot of people and a lot of animals who did not ask for the intrusion into their lives and they must be made whole by BP. Period.

[polichick]

6. Two things: of course they'd say it's an aberration, since they don't want more regulation...

But, according to a friend who works for a competitor, BP cuts all kinds of corners that aren't allowed in the big U.S. firms.

[dipsydoodle]

7. Well I never

I didn't know there were two r's in aberration.

[Gregin Orlando]

9. All it takes is one "aberration" to cause an extinction level event

BP must be held accountable for this disaster. From day one it has been far worse than we have been told by BP, the feds and the corporate media. Now after finally admitting the leak is far greater than originally estimated and acknowledging the existence of giant underwater plumes of oil, the media and BP are downplaying the health risks to cleanup workers and Gulf residents. The truth is that toxins in the air from evaporating oil and dispersants may pose an even greater health risk to Gulf coast residents than toxic water. There are even unconfirmed rumors of FEMA planning an evacuation of the coast as far as 200 miles inland if the air becomes unfit to breathe. Check out this article for more information: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m6d15-Toxins-in-air-from-evaporating-oil-may-pose-greater-threat-to-Gulf-residents-than-oily-water. The author has been writing about the magnitude of the leak and the underwater plumes for weeks before either were mentioned in the mainstream media.

[caledesi]

11. The Titanic was an "aberration" too...not enough lifeboats! People

died!

[burnsei sensei]

12. Cost-cutting and indifference

toward the well-being of people and ecosystems is not an aberration.
It has been par for the damn course in the oil industry for years.
It is also par for the damn course in coal mining.
The extraction of fossil fuels is always a dangerous business.
Cost-cutting makes it more so.

[Dover]

14. I WISH this were reminiscent of the tobacco industry grilling..and with same results!

Then again, we didn't need tobacco to run our cars and factories...

Didn't Obama say that we needed to approach our energy issues and global
warming like the Manhattan Project? Or is my memory off the mark?

[Nihil]

15. Congressmen tell oil executives that they are liers.

> Two congressmen reviewing oil spill response plans of the nation's five largest
> oil companies say they are nearly identical — and are all unprepared for an oil
> spill.

> The committee looked at plans of BP along with those of ExxonMobil, Chevron,
> ConocoPhillips and Shell Oil.

> the plans "cite identical response capabilities and tout identical ineffective
> equipment."

> two plans list the phone number for the same dead expert, and three include
> references to protecting walruses — which don't live in the Gulf.

> Committee Chairman Henry Waxman called them "cookie cutter plans," and said
> they are as unprepared as BP was to respond to a spill.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4427531


Strangely enough, I believe the politicians over the oil industry execs ...

[Ruby the Liberal]

16. Reuters: Oil companies turn on BP at congressional hearing

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Executives from other major oil companies turned on BP Plc and defended their own drilling practices during a U.S. congressional hearing on Tuesday as they sought to stave off new government regulations in the wake of BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Summoned before the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on energy and environment, executives of the biggest oil companies moved to isolate BP while asserting that the accident could have been prevented.

Exxon Mobil Chairman Rex Tillerson told the panel it is crucial to find out what caused the offshore rig to explode in April, creating the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. "This incident represents a dramatic departure from the industry norm in deepwater drilling," Tillerson said.

Shell Oil Co President Marvin Odum testified, "We remain confident in our drilling expertise and procedures, built on a foundation of multiple required safety barriers, proven methods and strict company standards."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65E31Y20100615

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Something about karma and stones in glass houses comes to mind here...

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. It's a dog eat dog world.

I am watching the hearings.
yep, they sure did act holier than thou against BP.

[BeyondGeography]

18. None of them have invested in clean-up technology for 20 years

I hope that comes up.

[global1]

19. These Execs Are Taking There Shots At BP Because Bottom Line.......

this is a competitive market place and they have a chance to get some free PR for their company at these hearings. I'm sure if the shoe were on the other foot BP would do the same to any one of them.

[tridim]

20. "We're not equipped to handle worst case scenerios". Period.

Game over.

[onehandle]

21. All in the same room? Sounds like a good time to seize their companies and nationalize oil. nt

[90-percent]

22. Investigate what happened?

Uh, don't we all kind of know what happened? Especially those of us that watched the 60 Minutes interview with the guy that worked on the rig.

My take is that BP was putting a lot of pressure on their two sub contractors to get the job done quickly, or ahead of schedule, and it was OK with these middle managers to instruct their subs to do it quick.

And the BP middle mangers attitude towards their people that expressed concern about the safety was one of; "If you can't handle the work, quit your job and we'll get people that can." Which is pretty much the way all American workers are treated on the job these days.

There's very few of us working people willing to quit a job to stand on principal when asked to do something we consider unusually dangerous. Faced with the choice between: no job, but no injuries either, or keep the job and cross your fingers you don't get hurt, most of us just cross our fingers.

-90% Jimmy

[Aaria]

23. Shell Oil Has no business saying that BP is the odd duck.. Shell Oil has over ................

200+ spills waiting to be cleaned up. The only difference is this spill will be visible to a lot of people with money and it's going to be on the TV for a long time.

Nigeria: Shell to Clean Up 268 Oil Spill Sites (Energy News) - Newspeg
Jun 14, 2010 ... Minister of Environment John Odey has asked Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to ... Nigeria: Oil Spill - Host Community Declines to Participate in Talks ... North America, Oceania, Organisations, South America, ...
en.newspeg.com/Nigeria-Shell-to-Clean-Up-268-Oil-Spill-Sites-68358792.html

Controversies surrounding Royal Dutch Shell - Wikipedia, the free ...
Wesseling later served as CEO of Shell companies in South America and the Middle East ... The report also found evidence of failures to clean up oil spills, ...
en.wikipedia.org/.../Controversies_surrounding_Royal_Dutch_Shel