Opening the offshore to drilling. Whose lame idea was it to begin with?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ozmar
  • Start date Start date
I suppose it's too much to hope that you're seeing why government regulation is ultimately not a good thing.

Simple, because no business is going to spend a half million dollars that it has no reason to spend. That would be a bad business decision. Spending that money to prevent a disastrous amount of liability in the event of an accident would be a good business decision.
 
What govt regulation?? where in the last 5 years did the govt step in to make BP do anything?? They paid off inspectors and even wrote their own reports. NO ONE was regulating them. They operated as they saw fit.


and fuck the safety to the crew and the rig it self. Those are good business decisions right there.. Ranks right down there with coal mining.
 
And yet the regulatory body was in place. Yes, yes, I know -- big government works but only if you have the right wise, incorruptible people in place. That is exactly the problem.

Again, the business cares as much as it impacts their bottom line. Any person working for any business is responsible for knowing that and knowing the risks involved in what they are doing. On the other hand, liability and bad press are costly, and so are production delays. The damage caused by the spill is a far bigger liability to BP than the guys killed, and would be the biggest reason for them to spend more money on safeguards, but that liability is what they are protected from by the federal government.

So who are you going to be angry at for the way BP's financial incentives are structured?
 
a new regulation I would be in favor of, is having these drilling companies drill a relief well in parallel with the main one on these exploratory drills.

I am not an insider, so I don't know what the margins look like on barrels of oil that they drill. But the cost of not doing this is apparent.

there doesn't seem to be an engineering solution to the problem other than relief well-- which I have maintained now for about 30 days.
 
That is the ultimate solution but is completely overboard. If BP had followed industry best practice instead of cutting corners we wouldn't be having this conversation, hell if they'd just cut one or two less corners out of the 8 or 9 that were substantial then we wouldn't be having this conversation. This was a perfect storm created by an impressive display of negligence on the part of BP...at least based on the data/info I have right now, that appears to be the case.
 
i agree with your assessment. unfortunately, they did cut all of those corners. I applaud the criminal investigation. someone needs to serve time next to people who rob liquor stores for 250 dollars in cash.

I would hate to see companies piss away money, but how are we supposed to guarantee the public that this wouldn't happen again?
 
First of all, I'm not sure BP broke the law, thats what the investigation is for, but on the surface it seems they simply did the bare minimum the MMS would allow. Which means its an oversight/regulatory issue not a criminal issue.

You fix the issue by fixing MMS and ensuring that industry best practice is not just a best practice but federal law when drilling in federal waters. The problem wouldn't have happened had BP listened to their contractors and/or followed industry best practice.
 
Back
Top