re: BP told feds it could handle oil spill 60 times larger

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I think it's clear that the only real R&D on these deep water spills is being done right now. Just a little late

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I think it's clear somebody didn't read the report correctly. The document states BP has the capacity to respond to a worst-case scenario. It says nothing at all about how well the response will go. Basically it just says, yeah, if the SHTF we'll have people there working on it, and not much more than that.

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This is a much, much bigger deal. The liability exposure potentially exceeds the assets of the company. Think of the property located on the Gulf of Mexico and South Florida. Think of the economic loss from loss of income from livelihoods, loss of property, enviornmental cleanup, etc. There is no comparison with the oil spill in Alaska.

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At this point in time, I disagree with your assessment of the current situation.

To quote the famous philsopher, Nathan Arizona, "If a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his arse hopping."

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Valdez occurred because a drunk tanker captain ran his ship aground, not because Exxon themselves ignored iffy pressure tests & took unnecessary risks for expediency.

not to mention that Prince William Sound <=> 5 states

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I'm fairly certain that Joe Hazelwood was employed by Exxon, or one of it's subsidiaries. When YOUR DRUNK CAPTAIN (or crewmen, under his direct supervision) run a supertanker hard hard aground on Bligh Reef, there's not a whole lot of legal wiggle room. That's pretty much your fricking fault. BP has several potential scapegoats.

I can't state factually state the size of Prince William Sound, relative to the Gulf of Mexico; so I'll concede that point.

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You're right. They won't be broke but they will not exist as BP is known currently. In my opinion they will no longer be an operator in the Gulf of Mexico. They will exist behind the scenes and their partners will operate the facilities.

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I'm assuming that they have broken up their operations so that they have multiple LLC's spread across the globe to help lessen the blow on BP corp. for events such as this?

Therefore, I would agree that a BP North America or BP USA (if there are such entities) would wind up in a situation as you have described.

But, globally, I think BP corp. finds its way through this, unfortunately.

Personally, I would like to see criminal charges brought against anyone that can found to be negligent for the initial explosion that took 11 lives, and for the multitude of false information that has come out since then that will cause extensive damage (ecological and financial) to the Gulf Coast.

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Lost rental income.




Kind of hard to prove with no oil on the beaches there as of now I would think

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Not really. My sister and friend cancelled a trip to Destin and went to Savannah instead. I can only imagine how many cancellations have occured because of this, and I'm sure each company or home owner that rents, is keeping up with records of cancellation.

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This is a much, much bigger deal. The liability exposure potentially exceeds the assets of the company.

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There may be some truth here. Think Authur Anderson, the largest account firm in the world with revenues in the billions wiped out due to liability lawsuits resulting primarily from Enron. Not saying this is what will happen with BP, but there is some precedence.