Oil Industry Off-shore drilling - BP: Flawed drilling gear still in use after BP oil spill, board says - by Neela Banerjee

Design problems with a blowout prevention system contributed to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, and the same equipment is still commonly used in drilling four years after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to a report issued by the federal Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

The board concluded that the "blowout preventer" — a five-story-tall series of seals and valves that was supposed to shear the drill pipe and short-circuit the explosion — failed for reasons the oil industry did not anticipate and has not fully corrected.

Despite improved regulation of deep-water drilling since the disaster, the board found that problems persist in oil and gas companies' offshore safety systems.

"This results in potential safety gaps in U.S. offshore operations and leaves open the possibility of another similar catastrophic accident," said Cheryl MacKenzie, lead investigator of the safety board inquiry.

The blowout of BP's Macondo well in April 2010 killed 11 men and spewed nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, making it the worst offshore oil disaster in United States history. Several federal commissions have investigated the missteps that occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the days and hours leading up to the explosion, which investigators said had its roots in corporate mismanagement and inadequate government oversight of the oil industry.

Read more: Flawed drilling gear still in use after BP oil spill, board says - Los Angeles Times

Britain: U.S. bans BP from new government contracts after oil spill deal

The U.S. government banned BP Plc on Wednesday from new federal contracts over its "lack of integrity" in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, possibly imperiling the company's role as a top U.S. offshore oil and gas producer and the No. 1 military fuel supplier.

The suspension, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency, comes on the heels of BP's November 15 agreement with the U.S. government to plead guilty to criminal misconduct in the Gulf of disaster, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The British energy giant agreed to pay $4.5 billion in penalties, including a record $1.256 billion criminal fine.

BP and its affiliates are barred from new federal contracts until they demonstrate they can meet federal standards, the EPA said. The suspension is "standard practice" and BP's existing U.S. government contracts are not affected, it said.

Note EU-Digest: obviously what would be interesting to know is what the existing
U.S. government contracts are which are not affected ?

 Read more: U.S. bans BP from new government contracts after oil spill deal | Reuters

BP fined, charged in oil spill that showed 'profit over prudence' - by Michael Muskal and Ronald D. White

Oil giant BP and three of its employees were indicted on criminal charges including manslaughter and obstruction of Congress on top of a record $4-billion fine that the company will pay the government for its role in the oil spill disaster that scarred the Gulf of Mexico, officials announced Thursday.

Led by Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., officials announced the indictments in a televised news conference from New Orleans, where the grand jury has been investigating the 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the Louisiana coast. Eleven people died in the explosion.

The announcement of the charges against BP employees came on the same day officials announced that BP had agreed to an unprecedented settlement involving a guilty plea to criminal charges.

British oil giant BP is more than prepared for the $4.5 billion in settlement charges it agreed to Thursday, analysts said.

In the third quarter alone, BP raked in sales of more than $93 billion and had a net profit of more than $5.2 billion. That result showed that “BP has made the most remarkable comeback from the most costly industrial accident in history,” said Fadel Gheit, senior energy analyst at Oppenheimer and Co., in a note to investors.

Read more: BP fined, charged in oil spill that showed 'profit over prudence' - latimes.com

Pollution: Experts say another BP-style Gulf blowout all too possible - by Renee Schoof

Much more needs to be done to lower the risks of another offshore oil disaster like the BP blowout two years ago in the Gulf of Mexico, the presidential commission that investigated the disaster reported Tuesday in its first progress update.

The presidential oil spill commission disbanded after it finished its main report last year, but its seven members recently got together again to look back on whether their recommendations had been carried out. Many steps to prevent or sop up another oil blowout haven’t been taken.

“The risks will only increase as drilling moves into deeper waters with harsher, less familiar environmental conditions,” the report says. “Delays in taking the necessary precautions threaten new disasters, and their occurrence could, in turn, seriously threaten the nation’s energy security.”

Note EU-Digest: It's almost two years since BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and according to an investigative report compiled by Al Jazeera, scientists are saying that they are finding deformities among seafood and a great decline in the numbers of marine life.

Dr. Darryl Felder, a biologist who has studied crustaceans for decades, says that populations of marine life have dropped in alarming rates.  "The species' richness, which means the number of different kinds of things that live there and the abundance of the individual ones that comprise the set, or the assemblage as we call it, are diminished," he said.

The United States government says that seafood is safe to eat, but some scientists say that is not the only concern that people should have. One of the most important animals in the food chain is the killifish, but according to biologist Andrew Whitehead, they are exhibiting a lower heart rate than they should, they have a lower hatching success, and their hearts are not forming properly. 

The killifish is just one of the species affected. "We have some evidence of deformed shrimp, which is another developmental impact," said Scott Eustis of the Gulf Restoration Network. "That shrimp's grandmother was exposed to oil while the mother was developing, but it's' the grandchild of the shrimp that was exposed that grows up with no eyes."

For more: Experts: Another BP-style Gulf blowout all too possible - Gulf Oil Spill - MiamiHerald.com