by Agence France-Presse. WASHINGTON — British oil giant BP revealed on Friday that it has so far spent $8 billion to battle the Gulf of Mexico disaster. At the same time, its crews worked to retrieve key evidence about the spill from the seabed. Robotic submarines recorded the delicate operation as engineers sought to raise a failed blowout preventer from the sunken rig to the surface and hand it over to the Justice Department. The U.S. government is conducting what could be a criminal investigation into the April 20 explosion and subsequent oil spill. BP, for its part, is hoping to shift some of the responsibility to its contractors. They include Transocean, which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig off the Louisiana coast to BP, and Halliburton, which cemented the well. BP’s financial liability will soar if the government determines it was criminally negligent. The British energy giant has forecast that the world’s worst maritime oil spill will cost the group a total of about $32.2 billion, after pushing it into a record $16.9 billion loss in the second quarter. BP has vowed to meet the costs of the cleanup and compensation for residents hit hard by a fishing ban as well as the blow to the local tourist industry. But a top executive warned Friday that proposed limits on offshore oil drilling could hurt BP’s ability to pay for damages, prompting outrage from environmental groups. David Nagle, executive vice president for BP America, told The New York Times that legislation before Congress could have an impact on the company’s ability to compensate losses from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Of particular concern is a bill passed by the House of Representatives on July 30 that includes an amendment banning any company from receiving permits to drill on the Outer Continental Shelf if more than 10 fatalities had occurred at its offshore or onshore facilities, or if it had numerous environmental violations. BP is not mentioned by name in the legislation, but is the only company that currently meets that description. “If we are unable to keep those [offshore] fields going, that is going to have a substantial impact on our cash flow,” Nagle told the Times , and implementation of such a law “makes it harder for us to fund things, fund these programs” to pay damages. The Times said BP executives are not backing away from a commitment to pay $20 billion into in an escrow fund over the next four years to pay damage claims and government penalties. The company has also agreed to contribute $100 million to a foundation to support rig workers who have lost their jobs and $500 million for a research program to study the impact of the spill. But demands continue to rise on BP, the newspaper noted, including from states affected by the disaster. “Apparently, BP’s efforts to ‘make it right’ extend no further than their bottom line,” said David Pettit, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Petro-money may talk in Congress, but extortion is illegal in the United States. All lawmakers need to stiffen their spines. BP’s latest outrage cannot stand.” The removal of the blowout preventer is a critical step toward killing the well once and for all, officials said. The ruptured Macondo well was plugged from above with heavy drilling fluid and then sealed with cement last month, but the so-called “bottom kill” operation to permanently seal the well was delayed until the blowout preventer is replaced. BP successfully removed a massive temporary cap on Thursday and will install a new blowout preventer once the failed device is removed. It will then use a relief well to pump heavy drilling oil and cement into the crippled well from below to permanently plug it. BP said Friday it hopes the relief well will reach the damaged well by around mid-September, depending on weather conditions. Related Links: Latest Gulf oil well explosion was no disaster, but what does it say about offshore drilling? Explosion on Gulf of Mexico oil platform contained, but damage unknown Fuel tanker runs aground in Canadian Arctic
The rest is here:
BP spill costs hit $8 billion as crews unearth clues
