BP sums up its response to Deepwater disaster

BP CEO Bob Dudley reflected on the company’s response to the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in a keynote speech at CERAWeek in Houston, Texas, on 21 April.

He confirmed that the company had spent USD44 billion in response to the 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 crewman and caused the largest-ever oil spill in US waters. This included USD14 billion recompensing victims, a further USD 14 billion on clean-up activity, and USD 1 billion on restoration projects.

He said the company’s safety culture had since been completely changed, with “sharper oversight and additional levels of protection”. Training, he said, is now focused on best practice, and advanced technology, when approved, is used at all BP’s oil wells.

Looking forward to 2035, Dudley said he believes the oil, natural gas, and coal industries will be equally split, each sharing 27% of the global energy market. The rest would be filled by unconventional resources, such as oil shale fracking and biomass energy.

However, he said the current low oil price can be expected to continue in to the medium term, which will mean a period of massive restructuring and economic suffering for mature regions such as the North Sea, North Dakota, and parts of Texas.

As the third anniversary of the entry into force of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) approaches, Seafarers’ Rights International (SRI) is embarking on a comprehensive study on the effectiveness of the Convention. The study has been commissioned by the International Transport Workers’ Federation. It will be an in-depth and... Read more →