National Incident Commander, Thad Allen declared BP’s Macondo well officially dead this past weekend. He said the bottom kill was successful and pressure tests showed no leaks. The bottom kill and official declaration came a little over two months after the spill had been contained in mid-July.
The blow out, which occurred on April 20, killed 11 workers and spilled more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It was the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history and the media and public’s attention was riveted as live videos showed a steady plume of black crude spewing into Gulf waters. That steady plume cost BP more than $70 million of its market value and cost CEO Tony Hayward his job.
Once the gusher was capped in mid-July it became apparent that BP was shifting much of its resource from containing oil to containing public opinion. An internal report released in early September laid much of the blame for the blow out at the feet of Transocean Ltd. (the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon) and Halliburton (an oil field services company responsible for cementing the Macondo well.)
The blame game will undoubtedly last much longer than the five months it took BP to kill the rouge well. Approximately 400 lawsuits are pending and more are expected. Federal investigators in New Orleans are examining the failed blow out preventer and the Department of Interior convened a forum on “Deepwater Blowout Containment” yesterday.
Gulf states are also holding BP’s feet to the fire. Louisiana’s Lt. Gov. Scott Angelle is scheduled to meet with BP officials today in Baton Rouge to discuss the state’s request for $75 million to aid the state’s seafood and tourism industries. Angelle said he wrote letters to BP officials in July and September but received no response. But after an email to BP’s general manager of public and governmental affairs, Larry Thompson, yesterday, Angelle’s office received a call scheduling the meeting. Louisiana’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary, Robert Barham had also written a letter to BP on September 15 seeking aid for what he deemed Louisiana’s “crippled” seafood industry.
BP executives will also be present in Biloxi, Miss. today at the Mississippi Summit on the Future of the Gulf of Mexico along with representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Mississippi’s Department of Environmental Quality and others.
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