BP covered up blow out 2 years prior to Deep Water Horizon Spill

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/bp-covered-blow-out-two-years-prior-deadly-deepwater-horizon-spill-1334928961

Two years before the Deepwater Horizon blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico, another BP off-shore rig suffered a nearly identical blow-out, but BP concealed the first one from the U.S. regulators and Congress.

This week, EcoWatch.org located an eyewitness with devastating new information about the Caspian Sea oil-rig blow-out which BP had concealed from government and the industry.

The witness, whose story is backed up by rig workers who were evacuated from BP’s Caspian platform, said that had BP revealed the full story as required by industry practice, the eleven Gulf of Mexico workers “could have had a chance” of survival. But BP’s insistence on using methods proven faulty sealed their fate.

One cause of the blow-outs was the same in both cases: the use of a money-saving technique—plugging holes with “quick-dry” cement.

[cantbeserious]

1. One Wonders How Many More Such Environmental Disasters Have Been Unreported

eom

[dipsydoodle]

2. Origin of that info was a WikiLeak cable released December 2010

Striking resemblances between BP's Gulf of Mexico disaster and a little-reported giant gas leak in Azerbaijan experienced by the UK firm 18 months beforehand have emerged from leaked US embassy cables.

The cables reveal that some of BP's partners in the gas field were upset that the company was so secretive about the incident that it even allegedly withheld information from them. They also say that BP was lucky that it was able to evacuate its 212 workers safely after the incident, which resulted in two fields being shut and output being cut by at least 500,000 barrels a day with production disrupted for months.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/15/wikileaks-bp-azerbaijan-gulf-spill?intcmp=239

The US was aware of the cement issue in a cable dated January 2009.

See shaded yellow area here : http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/187280

[Angry Dragon]

3. murder

[dipsydoodle]

4. For 167 murders see here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_Alpha

[annabanana]

5. How Long Has This Been Going On?

And now that there's a bill around to exculpate the oil companies COMPLETELY.. How bad will it get?

[alfredo]

6. HR 4345 is the Republican response to the BP Spill

Stop HR 4345!

H.R. 4345: Domestic Fuels Protection Act of 2012
112th Congress, 2011–2012

To provide liability protection for claims based on the design, manufacture, sale, offer for sale, introduction into commerce, or use of certain fuels and fuel additives, and for other purposes.

Sponsor:
Rep. John Shimkus [R-IL19]

[AdHocSolver]

9. HR4345 is designed to avoid liability for the next major disaster that they cause.

Their disregard of safety precautions in order to maximize profit is basic modus operandi of corporations.

H.R. 4345 provides a "get out of jail free" pass, not to say that corporations that caused disasters ever fully cleaned up after themselves.

If this bill somehow gets through the Congress, then it must be vetoed by the President.

This bill seems to be designed to have a similar use for corporations that the "Stand Your Ground" laws have for "trigger-happy" gun owners.

Existing laws allow people to defend themselves and their property if they can demonstrate to the authorities that they were actually threatened. The "Stand Your Ground" laws remove the necessity of having to prove an actual threat to a shooter by allowing the shooter to hide behind a claim that he "felt threatened".

HR4345, as described in the original post, evidently covers every aspect of the oil, coal, and natural gas industries. If the provisions in the bill follow the OP's description, then destruction of ground water by "fracking" would come under the provisions of this bill.

This bill is a real nightmare.

[alfredo]

10. Corporate immunity is the new despotism.

[global1]

7. Hey - Kind Of Related - Wasn't There A Recent Blow-Out In The North Sea That Was Dire?......

Was that resolved? I haven't heard much about that lately -- what's going on?

[xchrom]

8. that was shell -- supposedly it's been plugged. nt