01.04.2011

U.S. Lawyers Say BP, Spill Partners Harmed Cleanup Crew

BP and other companies who had used chemical dispersants to fight the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill should compensate the cleanup crew and residents harmed by those toxic chemicals, lawyers suing the firms said in a court filing. more20.01.2011

Noble In $1.2 Billion Ultra-Deepwater Rig Contract

Noble Corp said Hyundai Heavy Industries will build two ultra-deepwater drillships for the world's second largest offshore drilling contractor by fleet size for about $1.21 billion. Wednesday's news, along with recent orders from Dryships, Pride International, and Norway's Seadrill, bolsters the belief the Gulf of Mexico deepwater market will continue to rebound despite reversals following the oil spill in April last year. more16.12.2010

BP Considers Sale of Canadian Natural Gas Liquids Unit

BP said on Wednesday it was examining the possible sale of its Canadian natural-gas liquids business as it seeks to raise up to $30 billion to pay for its Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The assets, which include pipelines and processing stations that remove valuable crude-like liquids from gas, could fetch $2 billion, a Bloomberg report said, although one industry source said this figure was on the high side. more19.11.2010

NOAA: Oil Spill Effects in Gulf Largely Unknown

Scientists have only begun to understand the impact of the BP Plc oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, a top U.S. fisheries official said on Thursday. While 37% of the Gulf's federal waters were closed to fishing in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, only a fraction of 1% remains closed, a small block directly over the BP oil rig's wellhead, said Eric Schwaab, head of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service. more01.11.2010

Test Shows No Health Risk to Food From Spill

Testing has helped confirm that chemicals used to disperse oil from the BP spill have not made their way into fish, crabs, shrimp or oysters from the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. officials said on Friday. Tests of more than 1,700 samples show that fewer than 1% had any trace of chemicals at all, and the ones that did had extremely low levels, the officials from the Food and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. more08.09.2010

U.S. to Use BP Cash to Study Spill Health Effects

The U.S. National Institutes of Health said on Tuesday it would use $10 million from BP to start a multiyear study to look at the potential health effects from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The NIH has already designated another $10 million to begin the study, which will look at the health effects on clean-up workers from oil and dispersants, including respiratory, neurobehavioral, carcinogenic, and immune conditions. The study will also include mental health concerns and other spill-related problems such as job loss, family disruption and financial uncertainty. more20.08.2010

BP's Last Steps To Kill Gulf Well

BP is in the last stages of killing its ruptured Macondo oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, a new set of steps will push the final plugging process into September. Here is how the process is intended to play out, according to retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the top U.S. official overseeing the spill response, and Kent Wells, BP's senior vice president of exploration and production. Each step must have Allen's approval before proceeding: Pressure Testing more20.08.2010

BP Spill Left Deep-water Oil Plume

The BP oil spill left a large plume of hydrocarbons in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and those chemicals could be there for some time, oceanographers reported on Thursday. At least 35 km long, 1.9 km wide and 198 meters high, the plume was detected more than 1,100 meters beneath the Gulf's surface during a scientific expedition that ended in late June, the scientists said at a news briefing. more06.08.2010

Little Known About Oil Dispersants, Experts Say

Oil from BP s blown-out well has stopped flowing into the Gulf of Mexico and so far there is little sign of the 1.8 million gallons of dispersants used to combat the oil slick. But experts say very little is known about what their long-term effects might be, either on the creatures living in the Gulf of Mexico or the people who eat them. more05.08.2010

Obama Says 'Long Battle' In Gulf Close To End

BP said on Wednesday it was close to subduing its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well, and the White House hailed the "beginning of the end" of efforts to contain the worst spill in U.S. history. After months of setbacks in efforts to permanently plug the deep sea well, BP said heavy drilling mud injected into it on Tuesday was stemming the flow of crude. more