The Oil Is Leaking Again

After a few days of seeming success, the capping attempt appears to be failing.

The federal government Monday allowed BP to keep the cap shut tight on its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well for another day despite news the well is leaking at the top and something is seeping from the sea floor nearby. The Obama administration's point man for the spill, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said early Monday that the company promised to watch closely for signs of new leaks around the mile-deep well, which has stopped gushing oil into the water since the experimental cap was closed Thursday. Late Sunday, Allen said something was detected seeping near the broken oil well and demanded in a sharply worded letter that BP step up monitoring of the ocean floor. Allen didn't say what was seeping. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday afternoon the seepage was about two miles from the well head. He also said the well head is leaking.

And some improvement in water quality was already being seen. Heavy sigh.

BP Dumps CEO Tony Heyward From Gulf Oil Spill Cleanup Team

Now that BP CEO Tony Heyward has rightfully become the punching bag of the worldwide press, the oil giant is booting him out of their cleanup operation. And very interestingly, the new guy is an American.

A day after Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP, was pummeled by members of a House committee over the company’s role in the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the chairman of the company said in an interview that Mr. Hayward would step away from daily involvement in BP’s enormous response efforts in the gulf. Carl-Henric Svanberg, the chairman of BP, told Sky News that after eight weeks of being on the scene, Mr. Hayward “is now handing over the operations, the daily operations, to Bob Dudley.”

He referred to Robert Dudley, an American oil executive who has been a managing director of BP since 2009. Over five hours of testimony to the oversight and investigations panel of the Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday, Mr. Hayward repeatedly said he had no direct knowledge of the company’s safety decisions in connection with the stricken well, and refused to speculate about the causes of the oil spill before a company investigation of the accident is completed. His sidestepping of basic questions angered lawmakers, who told him that he was “stonewalling” the committee. Mr. Svanberg, who spoke for the company after a delegation of executives met with President Obama and his aides at the White House on Wednesday, acknowledged that Mr. Hayward has struggled in the public’s perception. “It is clear Tony has made remarks that have upset people,” Mr. Svanberg said to Sky News.

Maybe BP thinks the U.S. public and press will treat an American better.

The Ever-Growing Oil Spill Estimates

Ruh Roh!

"I will be their fierce advocate to make sure they are getting the compensation they need to get through what is going to be a difficult season." - President Obama, promising Gulf coast business owners that he'll make sure that BP pays up.

Photo Of The Day - Alabama Wave

(Via - The Ecoterrorist)

When BP Spills Coffee

GOP Rep. John Boehner: The Taxpayers Should Help Pay For Oil Spill Cleanup

GOP House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner thinks YOU should have to help pay for the Gulf oil spill cleanup. Talking Points Memo's Brian Beutler talked to Boehner:

"I think the people responsible in the oil spill--BP and the federal government--should take full responsibility for what's happening there," Boehner said at his weekly press conference this morning. Boehner's statement followed comments last Friday by US Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue who said he opposes efforts to stick BP, a member of the Chamber, with the bill. "It is generally not the practice of this country to change the laws after the game," he said. "Everybody is going to contribute to this clean up. We are all going to have to do it. We are going to have to get the money from the government and from the companies and we will figure out a way to do that." So today I asked Boehner, "Do you agree with Tom Donohue of the Chamber that the government and taxpayers should pitch in to clean up the oil spill?" The shorter answer is yes.

Drill, baby, drill!

Bankruptcy For BP?

BP's stock price is plummeting and some are beginning to wonder if the company will be forced into bankruptcy.

Shares in BP plunged again today in London after yet another sell-off in New York Wednesday, wiping out more than $82 billion in value from the London-based oil and natural gas firm. BP, No. 5 in sales worldwide on Forbes list of biggest companies, has seen its fortunes collapse in the wake of the spill that is now in its 52nd day. Its shares have fallen more than 50 percent since the April 20 spill and there has been chatter about a possible bankruptcy filing by BP amid U.S. political pressure on the company to halt dividend payments and pay even more compensation for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. That might be extended to include unemployment benefits for thousands of U.S. workers affected by the spill.

One oil industry analyst predicts that BP will declare Chapter 11 within 30 days.

MADDOW: Gulf Oil Booms Are Failing

Obama: Whose Ass Do I Kick?

The president told the Today Show today that he went down to the Gulf to try and figure out "whose ass to kick" about the oil spill.

BP Launches Apology Campaign

This weekend British Petroleum launched the below ad campaign taking responsibility for the Gulf oil spill. The clip, which has already been parodied on late night television, does not accept comments on YouTube.

Where Will The Oil End Up?

Spill, Baby, Spill!

(Via - AmericaBlog)

Photo Of The Day

Hit the Boston Globe's series of photos of doomed sea birds along Louisiana's oil-soaked coast, if you can bear it.

Feds Claim Gulf Oil Spill Has Stopped

Federal officials are saying that it appears that the "top kill" attempt to plug the spewing oil will in the Gulf may have indeed worked.

The flow of oil from the broken well in the Gulf of Mexico has stopped, the U.S. incident commander Admiral Thad Allen claimed Friday, but BP warned it would be a further 48 hours before it was known whether the "top kill" procedure had been successful. The next 12 to 18 hours would be "very critical" in the effort to stop the gusher which has caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history, Allen said on ABC's Good Morning America show. BP's CEO Tony Hayward told NBC's TODAY show that the top kill attempt, which involves shooting heavy drilling mud into the blown-out well 5,000 feet underwater, was "proceeding pretty well according to plan."

President Obama is in Louisiana today to inspect the damage already done to the wetlands.

Maddow On "Top Kill" Oil Spill Attempt

It turns out that the amount of oil spilling is actually from 12,000 - 25,000 barrels per day, up to 25 times what BP first claimed. And yet BP is still low-balling people who've lost their livelihoods with ridiculously small settlements.

OBAMA: I Take Responsibility For Not Moving Faster On Gulf Oil Spill

Vowing that BP will have to "pay dearly" for the Gulf oil spill, the president also acknowledged that the federal government did not move quickly enough at first.

“We are relying on every resource and every idea, every expert and every bit of technology to work to stop it,” the president said. “We will take ideas from anywhere but we are going to stop it. I know that doesn’t lessen the enormous sense of anger and frustration felt by people on the Gulf and so many Americans.” Fielding questions from reporters, Mr. Obama acknowledged that he should have moved more aggressively before the oil spill to clean up what he called a cozy and corrupt relationship between regulators and the oil industry. “Absolutely, I take responsibility for that,” he said. “There wasn’t a sufficient urgency.” Although the regulators were in some instances constrained by law from being more thoroughgoing, he added, “We should have busted through those constraints.”

Tweet Of The Day - BP Global PR

You've got to read the hilarious (fake) Twitter feed from BPGlobalPR. It's gold, Jerry! Gold!

(Via - AmericaBlog)

Gulf Oil Well Appears To Be Capped

The Coast Guard is saying today that it appears yesterday's "top kill" attempt to cap the spewing oil spill in the Gulf may have worked.

Engineers have succeeded in stopping the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government's top oil spill commander, Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning. The so-called "top kill" effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers in Houston, has pumped enough drilling fluid to block all oil and gas from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well is very low, but persistent, he said. Once engineers have reduced the well pressure to zero, they will begin to pump cement into the hole to entomb the well. To help that effort, he said, engineers are also pumping some debris into the blowout preventer at the top of the well. Allen said one ship that was pumping fluid into the well has run out of the fluid, or "mud," and that a second ship is on the way. He said he was encouraged by the progress. "We'll get this under control," he said.

RELATED: Heads are rolling, finally. The federal overseer of offshore drilling has been fired.

Photo Of The Day - Louisiana's Beach

More grim photos are here.