mike_r123 said:
just heard from judge napolitano that bp's total payout will be capped at around $1.75bn....
"In 2009, a bad year for the company, it had revenue of $239.8 billion and had a net profit of $16.5 billion. “BP in terms of its balance sheet is fairly... ."
the damages could go well into the dozens of billions if oil/contamination persists for years, plus the loss of tourism due just to the perception of dirty waters....
when you get into an auto accident and kill 2 people, you're not capped. you get to lose everything that is'nt nailed down in your life and then some.
when bp kills 11 people and destroys an entire region, well, they pay max about 10% of their income in a BAD YEAR....
welcome to the plantation....in case you didn't already know
if you're on the gulf coast, i feel sorry for you i really do....
Federal law may limit BP liability in oil spill
BP's liability for lost wages, other damages may be limited by a federal law
Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer, On Monday May 3, 2010, 7:50 pm EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal law may limit how much BP has to pay for damages such as lost wages and economic suffering in the Gulf Coast oil spill, despite President Barack Obama's assurances that taxpayers will not be on the hook.
A law passed in response to the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska makes BP responsible for cleanup costs. But the law sets a $75 million limit on other kinds of damages.
Economic losses to the Gulf Coast are likely to exceed that. In response, several Democratic senators introduced legislation Monday to raise the liability limit to $10 billion, though it was not clear that it could be made to apply retroactively.
Continues:
http://peakoilpetroleumandpreciousmetal ... eply-19330
Black Blade: Those of us in the O&G business have always criticzed BP for cutting corners and this is largely due to a corporate culture that permiates through the management of BP. Finally after a history of negligence on the Alyeska Pipeline and numerous oil spills, the Texas City Refinery explosion, and now Deepwater Horizon the regulators are finally waking up to the problems at BP (albeit too late).
Of course there are also other reasons such as land and lease access issues largely based on opposition to "shallow water" drilling and Federal land access in the western states. All which force energy companies into deeper water and more challenging environments where cutting edge technologies are used. We might be venturing into areas we are not quite ready to exploit based on our tech limitations.
I have a stack of Appliction for Permit to Drill (APD) that I am sitting on since the Obamalypse. I can't get the rigs into the field thanks to the changing political winds and pretty much had to shut my doors, sell the rigs at auction and layoff nearly 50 drillers and rig hands. We can't drill where people can see us so we as an inductry are forced to drill in crazy places, in crazy environments under crazy conditions - and people wonder why there are accidents? People should think about thise everytime they fill their gas tanks and pay their utility bills.
I'm just a small fish in a big pond in this business - here are a few pictures of my guys and what we used to do in the Powder River Basin drilling Coalbed methane until the day after the elections when everything came to a screeching halt (yeah, on November 5th, 2008):
http://peakoilpetroleumandpreciousmetal ... topic/4200
(Sorry for the rant but I am effectively out of business along with a few thousand other western O&G workers)
