BP Oil Spill: Roles and Responsibilities

The quest for finding the ones responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues. Representatives of BP, and Swiss offshore drilling company Transocean, the main actors involved in the accident blamed each other in recent  Senate hearings in Washington. Besides BP and Transocean, there is also American oilfield services company Halliburton and whose role in the incident has come under scrutiny. So, who is responsible?

Introducing the ‘players’:

• BP leased the Deepwater Horizon rig,
• Transocean owned the rig and operated it on behalf of BP, and
• Halliburton laid cement for the rig.

Who said what:

• Lamar McKay, CEO of BP America, blames Transocean for a failed blowout preventer, a 450 tonne set of valves now lying on the ocean floor “We have a blowout preventer that didn’t work“.
• Transocean’s Steven Newman did not agree: “Offshore oil and gas production projects begin and end with the operator, in this case BP“. He blamed Halliburton for poor quality cement works undertaken one day before the accident.
• Halliburton’s HS&E officer Tim Probert claimed that the “problem” had existed before his company commenced work, and that Halliburton had carried out its work according to BP’s specifications. It is noteworthy that a number of accident and incident reports on offshore wells implicate the cementing process, or a “poor cement job” as the cause. What’s more, Halliburton’s cement works are the main suspect in an oil rig explosion in Australia last year.

Does this matter? Does this discharge BP and Transocean from any liability? BP announced that it would pay damages for “legitimate” claims… so far 9,000 out of 23,000 filed claims have been paid. And while BP is trying to get money from Transocean, Transocean’s insurer claims the company cannot be held responsible because the contract with BP only makes it liable for environmental damage caused by any spills from its rig, not the well below. Semantics aside, the question remains: who is ultimately responsible?

Will (or even should) BP take responsibility? Grist’s Daniel Weiss and Susan Lyon make an interesting comment. Maybe they should. After all, on page 5 of their 2009 Sustainability Report, BP claims that:

Our systems of governance and management are designed to help us conduct our business responsibly, particularly with regard to environmental, social and financial issues. These systems reflect our support for globally recognized standards on safety, human rights and security.

I recommend having a look at BP’s Regional Oil Spill Response Plan… they had it figured out. Walruses as sensitive biological Gulf of Mexico resources  and a Japanese 24/7 home shopping website as one of its “primary equipment providers for rapid deployment of spill response resources on a 24 hour, 7 days a week basis.”

If this is the way government and management systems are designed…

And let’s not forget the role of government… have they finally realised that it might be time for more stringent regulation and oversight?