Posts Tagged ‘Oil Spill’

Alabama Has Been Paid, BP Says

November 11th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in business insurance, world events

Representatives of BP, the oil company responsible for the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year, said it’s paid more than $657 million to the state of Alabama for claims, grands and recovery costs.

The petroleum company released those numbers among other updated figures earlier this week, and said that the largest chunk of money, roughly $420 million, went directly to individuals and businesses filing claims.

According to BP, almost $127 million was paid to people working in the Vessels of Oppurtunity program, in which boat captains and commercial fishermen helped recover the oil from the water. The company also said that $22 million was used to help the tourism industry in Alabama.

Last Friday, however, the head of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach tourism said that Baldwin County’s lodging revenues had fallen by 33%, costing them roughly $58 million.

Alabama governor Bob Riley recently chastised BP for its claims fund process, stating that it speeds up when a meeting is called to air complaints, but slows down again just after.

BP has not commented on the governor’s opinion.

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Tropical Storm Alex Affects BPs Recapture Plans

June 28th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in insurance facts, insurance news

Reuters is reporting that the high waves expected to come as Tropical Storm Alex passes through the Gulf of Mexico will delay BP Plc’s plan to increase oil-capture capacity to up to 53,000 barrels a day. This is according to a company executive.

Kent Wells, senior vice president of exploration and production shared with reporters in a briefing earlier today that the storm was not expected to interrupt the drilling of a pair of relief wells intended to stop the leak by August, or interfere with current oil-capture systems. He said those operations are scheduled to continue, “…unless unfortunately a storm heads directly our way.”

The storm is slowly intensifying, and by tomorrow, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, will strengthen into the first hurricane of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season. The storm will likely make landfall near the Texas-Mexico border early Thursday.

Wells said that a week-long delay in hooking up a third oil-capture system could be caused by waves of up to twelve feet. “While we are on track for the end of June, it will be roughly a week after that, the 6th or 7th of July,” he said.

The amount of oil continuing to flow into the sea from under the rig’s cap and through vents on top is not certain, but U.S. science teams are estimating that it adds up to about 60,000 barrels a day. The current capture system involves a drill ship and a service rig that can handle a maximum of 28,000 barrels of oil every day. It will take an additional rig to increase capacity to 53,000 barrels a day, according to BP.

Wells said that a plan to increase capacity to 80,000 barrels a day by the middle of July is still on track. Yesterday, BP said, the existing capture systems either collected or burnded off 24,450 barrels of oil.

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Louisiana Attorney General Given OK to investigate BP

June 15th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in insurance news

More news in the battle against BP: Attorney General Buddy Caldwell of Louisiana has been given permission to investiage BP, the rig explosion that has sent oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, and the company’s process for compensation Louisiana residents and businesspeople affected by the disaster.

According to a news release, Judicial District Court Judge Joy C. Lobrano approved Caldwell’s petition to have BP release data related to the oil spill claims process, as well as documentation on the explosion and spill.

In addition, the petition requested that BP provide data on the composition of the mud used in the drilling and the failed “top kill” operation, and on the use and effects of any and all chemical dispersants being used, as well as air and water quality data.

BP has ten days to raise objections; after that Caldwell’s investigation can begin.

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Florida Says Latest $25 million from BP Not Enough

June 11th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in insurance news, insurance specialists, world events

The state of Florida, the Insurance Journal reports, is unhappy with BP. Again. The troubled oil company brought $25 million more to Florida on Tuesday, but the reaction was not gratitude, but criticism.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist and three independently elected Cabinet members asked for more money from BP, and demanded it swiftly in order to help residents of their state recover business losses caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill which has been rapidly encroaching upon the Sunshine State’s coastline. The informed Bob Fryar, BP senior vice president, that time is of the essence, because thousands of local businesses are on the brink of failure.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink told Fryar, “I don’t think speed is in your vocabulary yet. People are just trying to survive.”

Governor Crist, who is seeking a U.S. Senate seat as an independent, asked BP for more of everything: booms and skimmers to clean up slicks and sheen, money for cleanup, money for advertising, and claims offices in every coastal county in his state. “We demand it,” he said. “You’re a company with enormous resources.”

The most recent $25 million infusion from BP was targeted toward Florida’s costs of responding to the spill, and brings the total monies the state has already received from the company to $75 million. Before Tuesday’s meeting, Florida had already requested another $125 million.

Fryar, a petroleum engineer with 25 years of tenure at the London-based BP responded, saying, “We’re trying to make sure people with legitimate claims will be paid quickly. BP will pay all legitimate claims.”
He also said that BP had paid 18,500 of the 38,000 claims received to date.

The spill from the Deepwater Horizon explosion nearly two months ago in the Gulf of Mexico has threatened the tourism, fishing and hospitality industries in Florida. Tar balls washing ashore in the extreme western Florida Panhandle are also causing tourists to be dubious about the state as a wise choice of vacation destination this year.

Both Sink and Crist urged Fryar to have BP officials visit businesses hurt by the expanding spill.

“It’s no fun watching grown men cry,” Sink said. “That’s what I’ve seen.”

Attorney General Bill McCollum, who, like Sink, is hoping to succeed Crist as Florida’s governor in November, had very few positive remarks about BP’s handling of the crisis. “I don’t think you’ve done enough,” McCollum chastised the oil company. “There’s got to be more that you can be doing.”

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